diff --git a/newrelic/common/metric_utils.py b/newrelic/common/metric_utils.py
index 654f8051c4..ebffe83328 100644
--- a/newrelic/common/metric_utils.py
+++ b/newrelic/common/metric_utils.py
@@ -27,11 +27,9 @@ def create_metric_identity(name, tags=None):
 
         # Apply attribute system sanitization.
         # process_user_attribute returns (None, None) for results that fail sanitization.
-        # The filter removes these results fromt he iterable before creating the frozenset.
+        # The filter removes these results from the iterable before creating the frozenset.
         tags = frozenset(filter(lambda args: args[0] is not None, map(lambda args: process_user_attribute(*args), tags)))
 
-    # Set empty iterables after filtering to None 
-    if not tags and tags is not None:
-        tags = None
+    tags = tags or None  # Set empty iterables after filtering to None 
 
     return (name, tags)