diff --git a/tasks.py b/tasks.py
index c13acde19420ab654d950945b06b2e3d3db36b42..45a199617d0c4317c4110c3d6ae29c0ff1d0d0c7 100644
--- a/tasks.py
+++ b/tasks.py
@@ -37,11 +37,12 @@ exec(open(os.path.join(here, 'rattail', '_version.py')).read())
 
 
 @task
-def release(ctx):
+def release(ctx, skip_tests=False):
     """
     Release a new version of `rattail`.
     """
-    ctx.run('tox')
+    if not skip_tests:
+        ctx.run('tox')
     shutil.rmtree('rattail.egg-info')
     ctx.run('python setup.py sdist --formats=gztar')
     ctx.run('twine upload dist/rattail-{}.tar.gz'.format(__version__))