diff --git a/ref-filter.c b/ref-filter.c
index c62f6b4822..d79b7a2c74 100644
--- a/ref-filter.c
+++ b/ref-filter.c
@@ -1595,7 +1595,7 @@ static int get_object(struct ref_array_item *ref, int deref, struct object **obj
 
 	if (oi->info.contentp) {
 		*obj = parse_object_buffer(the_repository, &oi->oid, oi->type, oi->size, oi->content, &eaten);
-		if (!obj) {
+		if (!*obj) {
 			if (!eaten)
 				free(oi->content);
 			return strbuf_addf_ret(err, -1, _("parse_object_buffer failed on %s for %s"),
diff --git a/t/t6300-for-each-ref.sh b/t/t6300-for-each-ref.sh
index b359023189..bf456b02e1 100755
--- a/t/t6300-for-each-ref.sh
+++ b/t/t6300-for-each-ref.sh
@@ -1030,4 +1030,14 @@ test_expect_success 'for-each-ref --ignore-case works on multiple sort keys' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'for-each-ref reports broken tags' '
+	git tag -m "good tag" broken-tag-good HEAD &&
+	git cat-file tag broken-tag-good >good &&
+	sed s/commit/blob/ <good >bad &&
+	bad=$(git hash-object -w -t tag bad) &&
+	git update-ref refs/tags/broken-tag-bad $bad &&
+	test_must_fail git for-each-ref --format="%(*objectname)" \
+		refs/tags/broken-tag-*
+'
+
 test_done