diff --git a/tagmanager/ctags/php.c b/tagmanager/ctags/php.c
index 623bd25f..ffc23d71 100644
--- a/tagmanager/ctags/php.c
+++ b/tagmanager/ctags/php.c
@@ -672,9 +672,15 @@ static keywordId analyzeToken (vString *const name, langType language)
 	return result;
 }
 
+static boolean isSpace (int c)
+{
+	return (c == '\t' || c == ' ' || c == '\v' ||
+			c == '\n' || c == '\r' || c == '\f');
+}
+
 static int skipWhitespaces (int c)
 {
-	while (c == '\t' || c == ' ' || c == '\n' || c == '\r')
+	while (isSpace (c))
 		c = fileGetc ();
 	return c;
 }
@@ -695,10 +701,7 @@ static boolean isOpenScriptLanguagePhp (int c)
 		tolower ((c = fileGetc ()))         != 'i' ||
 		tolower ((c = fileGetc ()))         != 'p' ||
 		tolower ((c = fileGetc ()))         != 't' ||
-		((c = fileGetc ()) != '\t' &&
-		  c                != ' '  &&
-		  c                != '\n' &&
-		  c                != '\r')                ||
+		! isSpace ((c = fileGetc ()))              ||
 		tolower ((c = skipWhitespaces (c))) != 'l' ||
 		tolower ((c = fileGetc ()))         != 'a' ||
 		tolower ((c = fileGetc ()))         != 'n' ||
@@ -806,10 +809,7 @@ getNextChar:
 	else
 		c = fileGetc ();
 
-	while (c == '\t' || c == ' ' || c == '\n' || c == '\r')
-	{
-		c = fileGetc ();
-	}
+	c = skipWhitespaces (c);
 
 	token->lineNumber   = getSourceLineNumber ();
 	token->filePosition = getInputFilePosition ();
diff --git a/tests/ctags/Makefile.am b/tests/ctags/Makefile.am
index bf253ebb..5270b624 100644
--- a/tests/ctags/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/ctags/Makefile.am
@@ -231,6 +231,7 @@ test_sources = \
 	traits.php						\
 	union.f							\
 	value.f							\
+	whitespaces.php					\
 	$(NULL)
 test_results = $(test_sources:=.tags)
 
diff --git a/tests/ctags/whitespaces.php b/tests/ctags/whitespaces.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ea7978dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ctags/whitespaces.php
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+<?php
+
+function	a	()	{}
+
+function
+b
+()
+{}
+
+functionc(){}
+
+functiond(){}
+
+function
e
()
{}
+
+function f () {}
+
+function	
+
 g	
+  ()	
+  {}
+
+function h(){}
+
+
+/* for live PHP tests */
+var_dump(a());
+var_dump(b());
+var_dump(c());
+var_dump(d());
+var_dump(e());
+var_dump(f());
+var_dump(g());
+var_dump(h());
diff --git a/tests/ctags/whitespaces.php.tags b/tests/ctags/whitespaces.php.tags
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2b6977fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ctags/whitespaces.php.tags
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# format=tagmanager
+aÌ16Í()Ö0
+bÌ16Í()Ö0
+cÌ16Í()Ö0
+dÌ16Í()Ö0
+eÌ16Í()Ö0
+fÌ16Í()Ö0
+gÌ16Í()Ö0
+hÌ16Í()Ö0