diff --git a/src/DOM.cpp b/src/DOM.cpp
index 53f59b00b..a0b65a2fb 100644
--- a/src/DOM.cpp
+++ b/src/DOM.cpp
@@ -245,14 +245,16 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
   if (name == "")
     return false;
 
+  auto have_task = !task.is_empty();
+
   // Quickly deal with the most common cases.
-  if (task.data_removeme ().size () && name == "id")
+  if (have_task && name == "id")
   {
     value = Variant (static_cast<int> (task.id));
     return true;
   }
 
-  if (task.data_removeme ().size () && name == "urgency")
+  if (have_task && name == "urgency")
   {
     value = Variant (task.urgency_c ());
     return true;
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
     return task;
 
   } ();
+  auto have_ref = !ref.is_empty();
 
   auto size = elements.size ();
 
@@ -318,13 +321,13 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
   {
     // Now that 'ref' is the contextual task, and any ID/UUID is chopped off the
     // elements vector, DOM resolution is now simple.
-    if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 1 && canonical == "id")
+    if (have_ref && size == 1 && canonical == "id")
     {
       value = Variant (static_cast<int> (ref.id));
       return true;
     }
 
-    if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 1 && canonical == "urgency")
+    if (have_ref && size == 1 && canonical == "urgency")
     {
       value = Variant (ref.urgency_c ());
       return true;
@@ -332,7 +335,7 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
 
     // Special handling of status required for virtual waiting status
     // implementation. Remove in 3.0.0.
-    if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 1 && canonical == "status")
+    if (have_ref && size == 1 && canonical == "status")
     {
       value = Variant (ref.statusToText (ref.getStatus ()));
       return true;
@@ -340,7 +343,7 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
 
     Column* column = Context::getContext ().columns[canonical];
 
-    if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 1 && column)
+    if (have_ref && size == 1 && column)
     {
       if (column->is_uda () && ! ref.has (canonical))
       {
@@ -375,13 +378,13 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
       return true;
     }
 
-    if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 2 && canonical == "tags")
+    if (have_ref && size == 2 && canonical == "tags")
     {
       value = Variant (ref.hasTag (elements[1]) ? elements[1] : "");
       return true;
     }
 
-    if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 2 && column && column->type () == "date")
+    if (have_ref && size == 2 && column && column->type () == "date")
     {
       Datetime date (ref.get_date (canonical));
            if (elements[1] == "year")    { value = Variant (static_cast<int> (date.year ()));      return true; }
@@ -396,13 +399,13 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
     }
   }
 
-  if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 2 && elements[0] == "annotations" && elements[1] == "count")
+  if (have_ref && size == 2 && elements[0] == "annotations" && elements[1] == "count")
   {
     value = Variant (static_cast<int> (ref.getAnnotationCount ()));
     return true;
   }
 
-  if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 3 && elements[0] == "annotations")
+  if (have_ref && size == 3 && elements[0] == "annotations")
   {
     auto annos = ref.getAnnotations ();
 
@@ -430,7 +433,7 @@ bool getDOM (const std::string& name, const Task& task, Variant& value)
     }
   }
 
-  if (ref.data_removeme ().size () && size == 4 && elements[0] == "annotations" && elements[2] == "entry")
+  if (have_ref && size == 4 && elements[0] == "annotations" && elements[2] == "entry")
   {
     auto annos = ref.getAnnotations ();
 
diff --git a/src/Task.cpp b/src/Task.cpp
index ec7e4a8eb..f0ddf833a 100644
--- a/src/Task.cpp
+++ b/src/Task.cpp
@@ -363,6 +363,14 @@ Task::dateState Task::getDateState (const std::string& name) const
   return dateNotDue;
 }
 
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+// An empty task is typically a "dummy", such as in DOM evaluation, which may or
+// may not occur in the context of a task.
+bool Task::is_empty () const
+{
+  return data.size () == 0;
+}
+
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 // Ready means pending, not blocked and either not scheduled or scheduled before
 // now.
diff --git a/src/Task.h b/src/Task.h
index 120c89c23..13ec396fa 100644
--- a/src/Task.h
+++ b/src/Task.h
@@ -100,6 +100,8 @@ public:
   void set (const std::string&, long long);
   void remove (const std::string&);
 
+  bool is_empty () const;
+
 #ifdef PRODUCT_TASKWARRIOR
   bool is_ready () const;
   bool is_due () const;