diff --git a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_controller_test.go b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_controller_test.go
index 4e63a7fa6401..ebc7734875f7 100644
--- a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_controller_test.go
+++ b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_controller_test.go
@@ -347,6 +347,17 @@ func createTestConfigs(specs ...testSpec) []*testConfig {
 								"kind":       machineTemplateKind,
 								"name":       "TestMachineTemplate",
 							},
+							"taints": []interface{}{
+								map[string]interface{}{
+									"key":    "test",
+									"value":  "test",
+									"effect": "NoSchedule",
+								},
+								map[string]interface{}{
+									"key":    "test-no-value",
+									"effect": "NoSchedule",
+								},
+							},
 						},
 					},
 				},
@@ -385,6 +396,17 @@ func createTestConfigs(specs ...testSpec) []*testConfig {
 									"kind":       machineTemplateKind,
 									"name":       "TestMachineTemplate",
 								},
+								"taints": []interface{}{
+									map[string]interface{}{
+										"key":    "test",
+										"value":  "test",
+										"effect": "NoSchedule",
+									},
+									map[string]interface{}{
+										"key":    "test-no-value",
+										"effect": "NoSchedule",
+									},
+								},
 							},
 						},
 					},
diff --git a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured.go b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured.go
index 142ebc606750..decee9f2659c 100644
--- a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured.go
+++ b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured.go
@@ -212,10 +212,10 @@ func (r unstructuredScalableResource) Taints() []apiv1.Taint {
 	}
 	if found {
 		for _, t := range newtaints {
-			if v, ok := t.(apiv1.Taint); ok {
-				taints = append(taints, v)
+			if t := unstructuredToTaint(t); t != nil {
+				taints = append(taints, *t)
 			} else {
-				klog.Warning("Unable to convert data to taint: %v", t)
+				klog.Warningf("Unable to convert of type %T data to taint: %+v", t, t)
 				continue
 			}
 		}
@@ -236,6 +236,22 @@ func (r unstructuredScalableResource) Taints() []apiv1.Taint {
 	return taints
 }
 
+func unstructuredToTaint(unstructuredTaintInterface interface{}) *corev1.Taint {
+	unstructuredTaint := unstructuredTaintInterface.(map[string]interface{})
+	if unstructuredTaint == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	taint := &corev1.Taint{}
+	taint.Key = unstructuredTaint["key"].(string)
+	// value is optional and could be nil if not present
+	if unstructuredTaint["value"] != nil {
+		taint.Value = unstructuredTaint["value"].(string)
+	}
+	taint.Effect = corev1.TaintEffect(unstructuredTaint["effect"].(string))
+	return taint
+}
+
 // A node group can scale from zero if it can inform about the CPU and memory
 // capacity of the nodes within the group.
 func (r unstructuredScalableResource) CanScaleFromZero() bool {
diff --git a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured_test.go b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured_test.go
index f620f7ec78e2..48e633436070 100644
--- a/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured_test.go
+++ b/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/clusterapi/clusterapi_unstructured_test.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package clusterapi
 import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
+	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
@@ -222,6 +223,65 @@ func TestReplicas(t *testing.T) {
 	})
 }
 
+func TestTaints(t *testing.T) {
+	initialReplicas := 1
+
+	expectedTaints := []v1.Taint{
+		{Key: "test", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule, Value: "test"},
+		{Key: "test-no-value", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule},
+	}
+	expectedTaintsWithAnnotations := []v1.Taint{
+		{Key: "test", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule, Value: "test"},
+		{Key: "test-no-value", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule},
+		{Key: "key1", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule, Value: "value1"},
+		{Key: "key2", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoExecute, Value: "value2"},
+	}
+	taintAnnotation := "key1=value1:NoSchedule,key2=value2:NoExecute"
+
+	test := func(t *testing.T, testConfig *testConfig) {
+		controller, stop := mustCreateTestController(t, testConfig)
+		defer stop()
+
+		testResource := testConfig.machineSet
+		if testConfig.machineDeployment != nil {
+			testResource = testConfig.machineDeployment
+		}
+
+		sr, err := newUnstructuredScalableResource(controller, testResource)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+
+		taints := sr.Taints()
+
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(taints, expectedTaints) {
+			t.Errorf("expected %v, got: %v", expectedTaints, taints)
+		}
+
+		srAnnotations := sr.unstructured.GetAnnotations()
+		if srAnnotations == nil {
+			srAnnotations = make(map[string]string)
+		}
+
+		srAnnotations[taintsKey] = taintAnnotation
+		sr.unstructured.SetAnnotations(srAnnotations)
+
+		taints = sr.Taints()
+
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(taints, expectedTaintsWithAnnotations) {
+			t.Errorf("expected %v, got: %v", expectedTaintsWithAnnotations, taints)
+		}
+	}
+
+	t.Run("MachineSet", func(t *testing.T) {
+		test(t, createMachineSetTestConfig(RandomString(6), RandomString(6), RandomString(6), initialReplicas, nil, nil))
+	})
+
+	t.Run("MachineDeployment", func(t *testing.T) {
+		test(t, createMachineDeploymentTestConfig(RandomString(6), RandomString(6), RandomString(6), initialReplicas, nil, nil))
+	})
+}
+
 func TestSetSizeAndReplicas(t *testing.T) {
 	initialReplicas := 1
 	updatedReplicas := 5
@@ -297,7 +357,15 @@ func TestAnnotations(t *testing.T) {
 	memQuantity := resource.MustParse("1024")
 	gpuQuantity := resource.MustParse("1")
 	maxPodsQuantity := resource.MustParse("42")
-	expectedTaints := []v1.Taint{{Key: "key1", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule, Value: "value1"}, {Key: "key2", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoExecute, Value: "value2"}}
+
+	// Note, the first two taints comes from the spec of the machine template, the rest from the annotations.
+	expectedTaints := []v1.Taint{
+		{Key: "test", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule, Value: "test"},
+		{Key: "test-no-value", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule},
+		{Key: "key1", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoSchedule, Value: "value1"},
+		{Key: "key2", Effect: v1.TaintEffectNoExecute, Value: "value2"},
+	}
+
 	annotations := map[string]string{
 		cpuKey:          cpuQuantity.String(),
 		memoryKey:       memQuantity.String(),