diff --git a/package/tar/tar.mk b/package/tar/tar.mk
index b9de082603..ab8d0fc683 100644
--- a/package/tar/tar.mk
+++ b/package/tar/tar.mk
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ TAR_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
 TAR_CPE_ID_VENDOR = gnu
 TAR_DEPENDENCIES = $(TARGET_NLS_DEPENDENCIES)
 TAR_CONF_ENV = LIBS=$(TARGET_NLS_LIBS)
+# 0002-Fix-savannah-bug-#64441.patch
+# 0003-tests-fix-LDADD.patch
+TAR_AUTORECONF = YES
 
 # The package is a dependency to ccache so ccache cannot be a dependency
 HOST_TAR_ADD_CCACHE_DEPENDENCY = NO
@@ -61,4 +64,19 @@ HOST_TAR_CONF_ENV = \
 	CC="$(HOSTCC_NOCCACHE)" \
 	CXX="$(HOSTCXX_NOCCACHE)"
 
+# Patches 0002-Fix-savannah-bug-#64441.patch and
+# 0003-tests-fix-LDADD.patch are patching Makefile.am, so they do
+# require TAR_AUTORECONF = YES above. However, for the host-tar
+# package we can't do this: we can't have host-tar depend on
+# host-{autoconf,automake,libtool} as those in turn might depend on
+# host-tar. Since the patches 0002 and 0003 are only related to
+# linking against libiconv, which is only an issue for the target tar,
+# we do not autoreconf, and touch the corresponding Makefile.in to
+# prevent them from being re-generated.
+HOST_TAR_AUTORECONF = NO
+define HOST_TAR_NO_AUTORECONF
+	touch $(@D)/src/Makefile.in $(@D)/tests/Makefile.in
+endef
+HOST_TAR_POST_PATCH_HOOKS += HOST_TAR_NO_AUTORECONF
+
 $(eval $(host-autotools-package))