diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java
index 69a7f083b..db3ccec8b 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Tar.java
@@ -676,7 +676,7 @@ public class Tar extends MatchingTask {
      * @return true if the collection is a fileset.
      * @since Ant 1.7
      */
-    protected static final boolean isFileFileSet(ResourceCollection rc) {
+    protected static boolean isFileFileSet(ResourceCollection rc) {
         return rc instanceof FileSet && rc.isFilesystemOnly();
     }
 
@@ -687,7 +687,7 @@ public class Tar extends MatchingTask {
      * @return a list of the filenames.
      * @since Ant 1.7
      */
-    protected static final String[] getFileNames(FileSet fs) {
+    protected static String[] getFileNames(FileSet fs) {
         DirectoryScanner ds = fs.getDirectoryScanner(fs.getProject());
         String[] directories = ds.getIncludedDirectories();
         String[] filesPerSe = ds.getIncludedFiles();
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/ArchiveFileSet.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/ArchiveFileSet.java
index c3126f63f..84427b43a 100755
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/ArchiveFileSet.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/types/ArchiveFileSet.java
@@ -196,6 +196,21 @@ public abstract class ArchiveFileSet extends FileSet {
         return null;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Performs the check for circular references and returns the
+     * referenced object.
+     * This is an override which does not delegate to the superclass; instead it invokes
+     * {@link #getRef(Project)}, because that conains the special support for fileset
+     * references, which can be handled by all ArchiveFileSets.
+     * @param p the Ant Project instance against which to resolve references.
+     * @return the dereferenced object.
+     * @throws BuildException if the reference is invalid (circular ref, wrong class, etc).
+     * @since Ant 1.8
+     */
+    protected Object getCheckedRef(Project p) {
+        return getRef(p);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Prepend this prefix to the path for each archive entry.
      * Prevents both prefix and fullpath from being specified
diff --git a/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/tar-test.xml b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/tar-test.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9611c5d4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/tar-test.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License.
+-->
+
+<project name="tar-test" default="antunit"
+         xmlns:au="antlib:org.apache.ant.antunit">
+  <import file="../antunit-base.xml" />
+
+  <target name="setUp">
+    <mkdir dir="${output}" />
+  </target>
+
+  <target name="testTarFilesetHandlesFilesetReferences" depends="setUp">
+    <fileset id="xml.fileset" dir="." includes="*.xml" />
+    <tar  destfile="${output}/testtar.tar">
+      <tarfileset  prefix="pre" refid="xml.fileset" />
+    </tar>
+  </target>
+</project>