diff --git a/backend/posix/posix.go b/backend/posix/posix.go
index 8af37c37..ee1eaa0e 100644
--- a/backend/posix/posix.go
+++ b/backend/posix/posix.go
@@ -3779,10 +3779,10 @@ func (p *Posix) GetObject(_ context.Context, input *s3.GetObjectInput) (*s3.GetO
 
 		var tagCount *int32
 		tags, err := p.getAttrTags(bucket, object, versionId)
-		if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrBucketTaggingNotFound)) {
+		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-		if tags != nil {
+		if len(tags) != 0 {
 			tgCount := int32(len(tags))
 			tagCount = &tgCount
 		}
@@ -3859,10 +3859,10 @@ func (p *Posix) GetObject(_ context.Context, input *s3.GetObjectInput) (*s3.GetO
 
 	var tagCount *int32
 	tags, err := p.getAttrTags(bucket, object, versionId)
-	if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrBucketTaggingNotFound)) {
+	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	if tags != nil {
+	if len(tags) != 0 {
 		tgCount := int32(len(tags))
 		tagCount = &tgCount
 	}
@@ -4084,10 +4084,10 @@ func (p *Posix) HeadObject(ctx context.Context, input *s3.HeadObjectInput) (*s3.
 
 	var tagCount *int32
 	tags, err := p.getAttrTags(bucket, object, versionId)
-	if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrBucketTaggingNotFound)) {
+	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	if tags != nil {
+	if len(tags) != 0 {
 		tc := int32(len(tags))
 		tagCount = &tc
 	}
@@ -4868,6 +4868,10 @@ func (p *Posix) getAttrTags(bucket, object, versionId string) (map[string]string
 		return nil, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrNoSuchKey)
 	}
 	if errors.Is(err, meta.ErrNoSuchKey) {
+		if object != "" {
+			// return empty tag set for object tagging
+			return tags, nil
+		}
 		return nil, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrBucketTaggingNotFound)
 	}
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/tests/drivers/tags.sh b/tests/drivers/tags.sh
index 1a422d54..9eefd946 100644
--- a/tests/drivers/tags.sh
+++ b/tests/drivers/tags.sh
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ check_tags_empty() {
   if ! check_param_count_v2 "command type" 1 $#; then
     return 1
   fi
-  if [[ $1 == 'aws' ]]; then
+  if [ "$1" == 'aws' ] || [ "$1" == 's3api' ]; then
     # shellcheck disable=SC2154
     if [[ $tags == "" ]]; then
       return 0
diff --git a/tests/integration/GetObjectTagging.go b/tests/integration/GetObjectTagging.go
index 2805a247..d1893b2a 100644
--- a/tests/integration/GetObjectTagging.go
+++ b/tests/integration/GetObjectTagging.go
@@ -48,14 +48,19 @@ func GetObjectTagging_unset_tags(s *S3Conf) error {
 			return err
 		}
 		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), shortTimeout)
-		_, err = s3client.GetObjectTagging(ctx, &s3.GetObjectTaggingInput{
+		res, err := s3client.GetObjectTagging(ctx, &s3.GetObjectTaggingInput{
 			Bucket: &bucket,
 			Key:    &obj,
 		})
 		cancel()
-		if err := checkApiErr(err, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrBucketTaggingNotFound)); err != nil {
+		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+
+		if len(res.TagSet) != 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("expected empty tag set, instead got %v", res.TagSet)
+		}
+
 		return nil
 	})
 }
diff --git a/tests/integration/group-tests.go b/tests/integration/group-tests.go
index 993b29df..79a54d4a 100644
--- a/tests/integration/group-tests.go
+++ b/tests/integration/group-tests.go
@@ -779,6 +779,7 @@ func TestFullFlow(ts *TestState) {
 	TestDeleteObjects(ts)
 	TestCopyObject(ts)
 	TestPutObjectTagging(ts)
+	TestGetObjectTagging(ts)
 	TestDeleteObjectTagging(ts)
 	TestCreateMultipartUpload(ts)
 	TestUploadPart(ts)
diff --git a/tests/integration/versioning.go b/tests/integration/versioning.go
index e1e7cad2..261d8d8c 100644
--- a/tests/integration/versioning.go
+++ b/tests/integration/versioning.go
@@ -3419,12 +3419,20 @@ func Versioning_PutGetDeleteObjectTagging_success(s *S3Conf) error {
 		}
 
 		ctx, cancel = context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), shortTimeout)
-		_, err = s3client.GetObjectTagging(ctx, &s3.GetObjectTaggingInput{
+		r, err := s3client.GetObjectTagging(ctx, &s3.GetObjectTaggingInput{
 			Bucket:    &bucket,
 			Key:       &obj,
 			VersionId: versionId,
 		})
 		cancel()
-		return checkApiErr(err, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrBucketTaggingNotFound))
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+
+		if len(r.TagSet) != 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("expected empty tag set, instead got %v", r.TagSet)
+		}
+
+		return nil
 	}, withVersioning(types.BucketVersioningStatusEnabled))
 }