diff --git a/linkcheck/HtmlParser/__init__.py b/linkcheck/HtmlParser/__init__.py
index 3fca9f95..3fc837a8 100644
--- a/linkcheck/HtmlParser/__init__.py
+++ b/linkcheck/HtmlParser/__init__.py
@@ -33,13 +33,6 @@ Used callbacks of a handler are:
   @param attrs: tag attributes
   @type attrs: ListDict
 
-- Start-end tag: <tag {attr1:value1, attr2:value2, ..}/>
-  def start_end_element(tag, attrs):
-  @param tag: tag name
-  @type tag: Unicode string
-  @param attrs: tag attributes
-  @type attrs: ListDict
-
 Additionally, there are error and warning callbacks:
 
 - Parser warning.
diff --git a/linkcheck/HtmlParser/htmlsax.py b/linkcheck/HtmlParser/htmlsax.py
index 6f524683..d6f8cc4f 100644
--- a/linkcheck/HtmlParser/htmlsax.py
+++ b/linkcheck/HtmlParser/htmlsax.py
@@ -42,20 +42,14 @@ class Parser(object):
     def parse_contents(self, contents):
         for content in contents:
             if isinstance(content, Tag):
-                tag_column = None if content.sourcepos is None \
+                self.handler.start_element(
+                    content.name, content.attrs, content.text.strip(),
+                    content.sourceline,
+                    None if content.sourcepos is None
                     else content.sourcepos + 1
-                if content.is_empty_element:
-                    self.handler.start_end_element(
-                        content.name, content.attrs, content.text.strip(),
-                        content.sourceline, tag_column
-                    )
-                else:
-                    self.handler.start_element(
-                        content.name, content.attrs, content.text.strip(),
-                        content.sourceline, tag_column
-                    )
-                    if hasattr(content, 'contents'):  # recursion
-                        self.parse_contents(content.contents)
+                )
+                if hasattr(content, 'contents'):  # recursion
+                    self.parse_contents(content.contents)
 
 
 def parser(handler=None):
diff --git a/linkcheck/htmlutil/linkparse.py b/linkcheck/htmlutil/linkparse.py
index b2ed61e6..c455cffa 100644
--- a/linkcheck/htmlutil/linkparse.py
+++ b/linkcheck/htmlutil/linkparse.py
@@ -109,11 +109,6 @@ class TagFinder (object):
         """Does nothing, override in a subclass."""
         pass
 
-    def start_end_element (self, tag, attrs, element_text, lineno, column):
-        """Delegate a combined start/end element (eg. <br/>) to
-        the start_element method. Ignore the end element part."""
-        self.start_element(tag, attrs, element_text, lineno, column)
-
 
 class MetaRobotsFinder (TagFinder):
     """Class for finding robots.txt meta values in HTML."""
diff --git a/tests/htmllib.py b/tests/htmllib.py
index 06cebbc4..08318704 100644
--- a/tests/htmllib.py
+++ b/tests/htmllib.py
@@ -49,42 +49,16 @@ class HtmlPrettyPrinter:
         @type attrs: dict
         @return: None
         """
-        self._start_element(tag, attrs, ">", element_text)
-        self.fd.write("</%s>" % tag)
-
-    def start_end_element (self, tag, attrs, element_text, lineno, column):
-        """
-        Print HTML start-end element.
-
-        @param tag: tag name
-        @type tag: string
-        @param attrs: tag attributes
-        @type attrs: dict
-        @return: None
-        """
-        self._start_element(tag, attrs, "/>", element_text)
-
-    def _start_element (self, tag, attrs, end, element_text):
-        """
-        Print HTML element with end string.
-
-        @param tag: tag name
-        @type tag: string
-        @param attrs: tag attributes
-        @type attrs: dict
-        @param end: either > or />
-        @type end: string
-        @return: None
-        """
         self.fd.write("<%s" % tag.replace("/", ""))
         for key, val in sorted(attrs.items()):
             if val is None:
                 self.fd.write(" %s" % key)
             else:
                 self.fd.write(' %s="%s"' % (key, quote_attrval(val)))
-        self.fd.write(end)
         if element_text:
-            self.fd.write(element_text)
+            self.fd.write(">%s</%s>" % (element_text, tag))
+        else:
+            self.fd.write("/>")
 
 
 def quote_attrval (s):
diff --git a/tests/test_parser.py b/tests/test_parser.py
index 7e087082..206f8ce4 100644
--- a/tests/test_parser.py
+++ b/tests/test_parser.py
@@ -31,42 +31,42 @@ from .htmllib import HtmlPrettyPrinter
 # (<test pattern>, <expected parse output>)
 parsetests = [
     # start tags
-    ("""<a  b="c" >""", """<a b="c"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b='c' >""", """<a b="c"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b=c" >""", """<a b="c&quot;"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b=c' >""", """<a b="c'"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b="" >""", """<a b=""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b='' >""", """<a b=""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b=>""", """<a b=""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b= >""", """<a b=""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  =c>""", """<a =c=""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  =c >""", """<a =c=""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  =>""", """<a ==""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  = >""", """<a ==""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b= "c" >""", """<a b="c"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b ="c" >""", """<a b="c"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b = "c" >""", """<a b="c"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a >""", """<a></a>"""),
+    ("""<a  b="c" >""", """<a b="c"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b='c' >""", """<a b="c"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b=c" >""", """<a b="c&quot;"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b=c' >""", """<a b="c'"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b="" >""", """<a b=""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b='' >""", """<a b=""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b=>""", """<a b=""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b= >""", """<a b=""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  =c>""", """<a =c=""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  =c >""", """<a =c=""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  =>""", """<a ==""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  = >""", """<a ==""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b= "c" >""", """<a b="c"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b ="c" >""", """<a b="c"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b = "c" >""", """<a b="c"/>"""),
+    ("""<a >""", """<a/>"""),
     ("""<>""", """"""),
     ("""< >""", """"""),
-    ("""<aä>""", u"""<aä></aä>"""),
-    ("""<a aä="b">""", u"""<a aä="b"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a a="bä">""", u"""<a a="b&#228;"></a>"""),
+    ("""<aä>""", u"""<aä/>"""),
+    ("""<a aä="b">""", u"""<a aä="b"/>"""),
+    ("""<a a="bä">""", u"""<a a="b&#228;"/>"""),
     # multiple attribute names should be ignored...
-    ("""<a b="c" b="c" >""", """<a b="c"></a>"""),
+    ("""<a b="c" b="c" >""", """<a b="c"/>"""),
     # ... but which one wins - in our implementation the last one
-    ("""<a b="c" b="d" >""", """<a b="d"></a>"""),
+    ("""<a b="c" b="d" >""", """<a b="d"/>"""),
     # reduce test
     ("""<a  b="c"><""", """<a b="c"><</a>"""),
     # numbers in tag
     ("""<h1>bla</h1>""", """<h1>bla</h1>"""),
     # more start tags
-    ("""<a  b=c"><a b="c">""", """<a b="c&quot;"><a b="c"></a></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  b=/c/></a><br>""", """<a b="/c/"></a><br/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b=c"><a b="c">""", """<a b="c&quot;"/><a b="c"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  b=/c/></a><br>""", """<a b="/c/"/><br/>"""),
     ("""<br/>""", """<br/>"""),
-    ("""<a  b="50%"><br>""", """<a b="50%"><br/></a>"""),
+    ("""<a  b="50%"><br>""", """<a b="50%"/><br/>"""),
     # start and end tag (HTML doctype assumed)
-    ("""<a/>""", """<a></a>"""),
+    ("""<a/>""", """<a/>"""),
     ("""<meta/>""", """<meta/>"""),
     ("""<MetA/>""", """<meta/>"""),
     # line continuation (Dr. Fun webpage)
@@ -74,30 +74,30 @@ parsetests = [
     ("""<img align="mid\\\ndle">""", """<img align="mid\\\ndle"/>"""),
     ("""<img align='mid\\\ndle'>""", """<img align="mid\\\ndle"/>"""),
     # href with $
-    ("""<a href="123$456">""", """<a href="123$456"></a>"""),
+    ("""<a href="123$456">""", """<a href="123$456"/>"""),
     # quoting
-    ("""<a  href=/ >""", """<a href="/"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href= />""", """<a href="/"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href= >""", """<a href=""></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href="'" >""", """<a href="'"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href='"' >""", """<a href="&quot;"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href="bla" %]" >""", """<a %]"="" href="bla"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href=bla" >""", """<a href="bla&quot;"></a>"""),
+    ("""<a  href=/ >""", """<a href="/"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href= />""", """<a href="/"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href= >""", """<a href=""/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="'" >""", """<a href="'"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href='"' >""", """<a href="&quot;"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="bla" %]" >""", """<a %]"="" href="bla"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href=bla" >""", """<a href="bla&quot;"/>"""),
     ("""<a onmouseover=blubb('nav1','',"""\
      """'/images/nav.gif',1);move(this); b="c">""",
      """<a b="c" onmouseover="blubb('nav1','',"""\
-     """'/images/nav.gif',1);move(this);"></a>"""),
+     """'/images/nav.gif',1);move(this);"/>"""),
     ("""<a onClick=location.href('/index.htm') b="c">""",
-     """<a b="c" onclick="location.href('/index.htm')"></a>"""),
+     """<a b="c" onclick="location.href('/index.htm')"/>"""),
     # entity resolving
-    ("""<a  href="&#6D;ailto:" >""", """<a href="D;ailto:"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href="&amp;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&amp;ailto:"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href="&amp;amp;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&amp;amp;ailto:"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href="&hulla;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&amp;hulla;ailto:"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href="&#109;ailto:" >""", """<a href="mailto:"></a>"""),
-    ("""<a  href="&#x6D;ailto:" >""", """<a href="mailto:"></a>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="&#6D;ailto:" >""", """<a href="D;ailto:"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="&amp;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&amp;ailto:"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="&amp;amp;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&amp;amp;ailto:"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="&hulla;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&amp;hulla;ailto:"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="&#109;ailto:" >""", """<a href="mailto:"/>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="&#x6D;ailto:" >""", """<a href="mailto:"/>"""),
     # note that \u8156 is not valid encoding and therefore gets removed
-    ("""<a  href="&#8156;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&#8156;ailto:"></a>"""),
+    ("""<a  href="&#8156;ailto:" >""", """<a href="&#8156;ailto:"/>"""),
     # mailto link
     ("""<a  href=mailto:calvin@LocalHost?subject=Hallo&to=michi>1</a>""",
      """<a href="mailto:calvin@LocalHost?subject=Hallo&amp;to=michi">1</a>"""),
@@ -116,19 +116,20 @@ parsetests = [
     ("""</td <td  a="b" >""", """"""),
     ("""</td<td  a="b" >""", """"""),
     # missing beginning quote
-    ("""<td a=b">""", """<td a="b&quot;"></td>"""),
+    ("""<td a=b">""", """<td a="b&quot;"/>"""),
     # stray < before start tag
-    ("""<0.<td  a="b" >""", """<td a="b"></td>"""),
+    ("""<0.<td  a="b" >""", """<td a="b"/>"""),
     # HTML5 tags
-    ("""<audio  src=bla>""", """<audio src="bla"></audio>"""),
-    ("""<button  formaction=bla>""", """<button formaction="bla"></button>"""),
-    ("""<html  manifest=bla>""", """<html manifest="bla"></html>"""),
+    ("""<audio  src=bla>""", """<audio src="bla"/>"""),
+    ("""<button  formaction=bla>""", """<button formaction="bla"/>"""),
+    ("""<html  manifest=bla>""", """<html manifest="bla"/>"""),
     ("""<source  src=bla>""", """<source src="bla"/>"""),
     ("""<track  src=bla>""", """<track src="bla"/>"""),
-    ("""<video  src=bla>""", """<video src="bla"></video>"""),
+    ("""<video  src=bla>""", """<video src="bla"/>"""),
     # Test inserted tag s
-    ("""<b><a></a></b>""", """<b><a></a></b>"""),
-    ("""<a></a><b></b>""", """<a></a><b></b>"""),
+    ("""<a></a><b></b>""", """<a/><b/>"""),
+    # This is not correct result for an HTML parser, but it is for us
+    ("""<b><a></a></b>""", """<b/><a/>"""),
 ]