diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a6a0cb05..f9d10a75 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Fixed
 - Output buffer is now cleaned for internal PHP errors as well, not just for Exceptions [#514](https://github.com/smarty-php/smarty/issues/514)
 - Fixed recursion and out of memory errors when caching in complicated template set-ups using inheritance and includes [#801](https://github.com/smarty-php/smarty/pull/801)
+- Fixed PHP8.1 deprecation errors in strip_tags 
 - Fix Variable Usage in Exception message when unable to load subtemplate [#808](https://github.com/smarty-php/smarty/pull/808)
 - Fixed PHP8.1 deprecation notices for strftime [#672](https://github.com/smarty-php/smarty/issues/672)
 - Fixed PHP8.1 deprecation errors passing null to parameter in trim [#807](https://github.com/smarty-php/smarty/pull/807)
diff --git a/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.strip_tags.php b/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.strip_tags.php
index 6ee3df9a..bd866a61 100644
--- a/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.strip_tags.php
+++ b/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.strip_tags.php
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@
 function smarty_modifiercompiler_strip_tags($params)
 {
     if (!isset($params[ 1 ]) || $params[ 1 ] === true || trim($params[ 1 ], '"') === 'true') {
-        return "preg_replace('!<[^>]*?>!', ' ', {$params[0]})";
+        return "preg_replace('!<[^>]*?>!', ' ', {$params[0]} ?: '')";
     } else {
-        return 'strip_tags(' . $params[ 0 ] . ')';
+        return 'strip_tags((string) ' . $params[ 0 ] . ')';
     }
 }