diff --git a/builtin/tag.c b/builtin/tag.c
index 68efca949c..667515e527 100644
--- a/builtin/tag.c
+++ b/builtin/tag.c
@@ -25,8 +25,6 @@ static const char * const git_tag_usage[] = {
 
 static char signingkey[1000];
 
-static int core_clock_skew = 86400;
-
 struct tag_filter {
 	const char **patterns;
 	int lines;
@@ -53,8 +51,7 @@ static int in_commit_list(const struct commit_list *want, struct commit *c)
 }
 
 static int contains_recurse(struct commit *candidate,
-			    const struct commit_list *want,
-			    unsigned long cutoff)
+			    const struct commit_list *want)
 {
 	struct commit_list *p;
 
@@ -71,13 +68,9 @@ static int contains_recurse(struct commit *candidate,
 	if (parse_commit(candidate) < 0)
 		return 0;
 
-	/* stop searching if we go too far back in time */
-	if (candidate->date < cutoff)
-		return 0;
-
 	/* Otherwise recurse and mark ourselves for future traversals. */
 	for (p = candidate->parents; p; p = p->next) {
-		if (contains_recurse(p->item, want, cutoff)) {
+		if (contains_recurse(p->item, want)) {
 			candidate->object.flags |= TMP_MARK;
 			return 1;
 		}
@@ -88,22 +81,7 @@ static int contains_recurse(struct commit *candidate,
 
 static int contains(struct commit *candidate, const struct commit_list *want)
 {
-	unsigned long cutoff = 0;
-
-	if (core_clock_skew >= 0) {
-		const struct commit_list *c;
-		unsigned long min_date = ULONG_MAX;
-		for (c = want; c; c = c->next) {
-			if (parse_commit(c->item) < 0)
-				continue;
-			if (c->item->date < min_date)
-				min_date = c->item->date;
-		}
-		if (min_date > core_clock_skew)
-			cutoff = min_date - core_clock_skew;
-	}
-
-	return contains_recurse(candidate, want, cutoff);
+	return contains_recurse(candidate, want);
 }
 
 static int show_reference(const char *refname, const unsigned char *sha1,
@@ -307,14 +285,6 @@ static int git_tag_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 		return 0;
 	}
 
-	if (!strcmp(var, "core.clockskew")) {
-		if (!value || !strcmp(value, "none"))
-			core_clock_skew = -1;
-		else
-			core_clock_skew = git_config_int(var, value);
-		return 0;
-	}
-
 	return git_default_config(var, value, cb);
 }