diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/HTML.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/HTML.hs
index e2be1c5bd..2b667c63c 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/HTML.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/HTML.hs
@@ -1133,6 +1133,7 @@ htmlTag :: (HasReaderOptions st, Monad m)
         -> ParserT [Char] st m (Tag String, String)
 htmlTag f = try $ do
   lookAhead (char '<')
+  startpos <- getPosition
   inp <- getInput
   let ts = canonicalizeTags $ parseTagsOptions
                                parseOptions{ optTagWarning = False
@@ -1153,11 +1154,17 @@ htmlTag f = try $ do
                       []     -> False
                       (c:cs) -> isLetter c && all isNameChar cs
 
-  let endAngle = try $ do char '>'
-                          pos <- getPosition
-                          guard $ (sourceLine pos == ln &&
-                                   sourceColumn pos >= col) ||
-                                  sourceLine pos > ln
+  let endpos = if ln == 1
+                  then setSourceColumn startpos
+                         (sourceColumn startpos + (col - 1))
+                  else setSourceColumn (setSourceLine startpos
+                                        (sourceLine startpos + (ln - 1)))
+                         col
+  let endAngle = try $
+        do char '>'
+           pos <- getPosition
+           guard $ pos >= endpos
+
   let handleTag tagname = do
        -- basic sanity check, since the parser is very forgiving
        -- and finds tags in stuff like x<y)
diff --git a/test/command/3989.md b/test/command/3989.md
index 32b5e0574..bf078b2e4 100644
--- a/test/command/3989.md
+++ b/test/command/3989.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ```
 pandoc -f markdown -t native
 <span title="1st line of text <br> 2nd line of text">foo</span>
-<span title="1st line of text <br> 2nd line of text">foo</span>
+ <span title="1st line of text <br> 2nd line of text">foo</span>
 ^D
 [Para [Span ("",[],[("title","1st line of text <br> 2nd line of text")]) [Str "foo"],SoftBreak,Span ("",[],[("title","1st line of text <br> 2nd line of text")]) [Str "foo"]]]
 ```