diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 23171ccc1b..d3eac8d94b 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -153,6 +153,8 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     MAPREDUCE-5732. Report proper queue when job has been automatically placed
     (Sandy Ryza)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-5699. Allow setting tags on MR jobs (kasha)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
index f1a3e453fb..ffb9543351 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ public interface MRJobConfig {
 
   public static final String QUEUE_NAME = "mapreduce.job.queuename";
 
+  public static final String JOB_TAGS = "mapreduce.job.tags";
+
   public static final String JVM_NUMTASKS_TORUN = "mapreduce.job.jvm.numtasks";
 
   public static final String SPLIT_FILE = "mapreduce.job.splitfile";
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
index dea2adf135..cc663923ea 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/resources/mapred-default.xml
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
+<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="configuration.xsl"?>
 <!--
    Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
    contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
@@ -15,7 +16,6 @@
    See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
    limitations under the License.
 -->
-<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="configuration.xsl"?>
 
 <!-- Do not modify this file directly.  Instead, copy entries that you -->
 <!-- wish to modify from this file into mapred-site.xml and change them -->
@@ -727,6 +727,14 @@
   </description>
 </property>
 
+  <property>
+    <name>mapreduce.job.tags</name>
+    <value></value>
+    <description> Tags for the job that will be passed to YARN at submission 
+      time. Queries to YARN for applications can filter on these tags.
+    </description>
+  </property>
+
 <property>
   <name>mapreduce.cluster.local.dir</name>
   <value>${hadoop.tmp.dir}/mapred/local</value>
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/YARNRunner.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/YARNRunner.java
index fc23c6541f..ce475c197c 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/YARNRunner.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/YARNRunner.java
@@ -21,7 +21,9 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Vector;
@@ -467,6 +469,8 @@ public ApplicationSubmissionContext createApplicationSubmissionContext(
         ContainerLaunchContext.newInstance(localResources, environment,
           vargsFinal, null, securityTokens, acls);
 
+    Collection<String> tagsFromConf =
+        jobConf.getTrimmedStringCollection(MRJobConfig.JOB_TAGS);
 
     // Set up the ApplicationSubmissionContext
     ApplicationSubmissionContext appContext =
@@ -486,6 +490,9 @@ public ApplicationSubmissionContext createApplicationSubmissionContext(
             MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_MR_AM_MAX_ATTEMPTS));
     appContext.setResource(capability);
     appContext.setApplicationType(MRJobConfig.MR_APPLICATION_TYPE);
+    if (tagsFromConf != null && !tagsFromConf.isEmpty()) {
+      appContext.setApplicationTags(new HashSet<String>(tagsFromConf));
+    }
     return appContext;
   }