diff --git a/proposal/sandbox/filterreaders/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/TabsToSpaces.java b/proposal/sandbox/filterreaders/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/TabsToSpaces.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..35e8c763d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/proposal/sandbox/filterreaders/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/filters/TabsToSpaces.java
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+package org.apache.tools.ant.filters;
+
+import java.io.FilterReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
+import java.util.Hashtable;
+
+import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Parameter;
+import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Parameterizable;
+
+/**
+ * Converts tabs to spaces.
+ *
+ * Example Usage:
+ * =============
+ * <filterreader classname="org.apache.tools.ant.filters.TabsToSpaces">
+ *    <param name="tablength" value="8"/>
+ * </filterreader>
+ *
+ * @author <a href="mailto:umagesh@apache.org">Magesh Umasankar</a>
+ */
+public final class TabsToSpaces
+    extends FilterReader
+    implements Parameterizable
+{
+    private static final int DEFAULT_TAB_LENGTH = 8;
+
+    private static final String TAB_LENGTH_KEY = "tablength";
+
+    private Parameter[] parameters;
+
+    private boolean initialized;
+
+    private int tabLength = DEFAULT_TAB_LENGTH;
+
+    private int spacesRemaining = 0;
+
+    /**
+     * Create a new filtered reader.
+     *
+     * @param in  a Reader object providing the underlying stream.
+     */
+    public TabsToSpaces(final Reader in) {
+        super(in);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Convert tabs with spaces
+     */
+    public final int read() throws IOException {
+        if (!initialized) {
+            initialize();
+            initialized = true;
+        }
+
+        int ch = -1;
+
+        if (spacesRemaining > 0) {
+            spacesRemaining--;
+            ch = ' ';
+        } else {
+            ch = in.read();
+            if (ch == '\t') {
+                spacesRemaining = tabLength - 1;
+                ch = ' ';
+            }
+        }
+        return ch;
+    }
+
+    public final int read(final char cbuf[], final int off,
+                          final int len) throws IOException {
+        for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+            final int ch = read();
+            if (ch == -1) {
+                if (i == 0) {
+                    return -1;
+                } else {
+                    return i;
+                }
+            }
+            cbuf[off + i] = (char) ch;
+        }
+        return len;
+    }
+
+    public final long skip(long n) throws IOException {
+        for (long i = 0; i < n; i++) {
+            if (in.read() == -1) {
+                return i;
+            }
+        }
+        return n;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Set Parameters
+     */
+    public final void setParameters(final Parameter[] parameters) {
+        this.parameters = parameters;
+        initialized = false;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initialize tokens and load the replacee-replacer hashtable.
+     */
+    private final void initialize() {
+        if (parameters != null) {
+            for (int i = 0; i < parameters.length; i++) {
+                if (parameters[i] != null) {
+                    if (TAB_LENGTH_KEY.equals(parameters[i].getName())) {
+                        tabLength =
+                            new Integer(parameters[i].getValue()).intValue();
+                        break;
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}