diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d7310f5e082..8b1137d7d84 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Change Log
 ===
 
+* [bug] semicolon at end of file no longer triggers false positives for `whitespace` rule
 * [bug] hoisted functions no longer cause false positives for the `no-unreachable` rule
 * [bug] the rule loader no longer transforms/ignores the leading and trailing underscores and dashes of rule names in the config file
 * [feature] the `check-operator` option for the `whitespace` rule now checks whitespace around the => token
diff --git a/src/rules/whitespaceRule.ts b/src/rules/whitespaceRule.ts
index 2854a929f3c..2432febd41f 100644
--- a/src/rules/whitespaceRule.ts
+++ b/src/rules/whitespaceRule.ts
@@ -31,6 +31,13 @@ export class Rule extends Lint.Rules.AbstractRule {
 }
 
 class WhitespaceWalker extends Lint.RuleWalker {
+    private lastPosition: number;
+
+    constructor(syntaxTree: TypeScript.SyntaxTree, options: Lint.IOptions) {
+        super(syntaxTree, options);
+        this.lastPosition = this.getSyntaxTree().sourceUnit().fullWidth();
+    }
+
     // check for trailing space after the given tokens
     public visitToken(token: TypeScript.ISyntaxToken): void {
         super.visitToken(token);
@@ -166,6 +173,10 @@ class WhitespaceWalker extends Lint.RuleWalker {
 
     private checkForLeadingSpace(position: number, trivia: TypeScript.ISyntaxTriviaList) {
         var failure: Lint.RuleFailure = null;
+        if (position === this.lastPosition) {
+            // don't check for trailing whitespace if we're the last character in the file. There won't be any.
+            return;
+        }
 
         if (trivia.count() < 1) {
             failure = this.createFailure(position, 1, Rule.FAILURE_STRING);
diff --git a/test/files/rules/whitespace.test.ts b/test/files/rules/whitespace.test.ts
index 0e608d84542..c150f6c9903 100644
--- a/test/files/rules/whitespace.test.ts
+++ b/test/files/rules/whitespace.test.ts
@@ -34,3 +34,5 @@ module M {
     var r: ()=>string;
     var s: new ()=>string;
 }
+
+var a;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/rules/whitespaceRuleTests.ts b/test/rules/whitespaceRuleTests.ts
index aa6de36e7d1..9026daf05c6 100644
--- a/test/rules/whitespaceRuleTests.ts
+++ b/test/rules/whitespaceRuleTests.ts
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ describe("<whitespace>", () => {
             "check-type"
         ];
         actualFailures = Lint.Test.applyRuleOnFile(fileName, WhitespaceRule, options);
+        assert.lengthOf(actualFailures, 30);
     });
 
     it("enforces rules only when enabled", () => {
@@ -103,11 +104,13 @@ describe("<whitespace>", () => {
     });
 
     it("enforces whitespace in for statements", () => {
-        var expectedFailure1 = createFailure([20, 15], [20, 16]);
-        var expectedFailure2 = createFailure([20, 18], [20, 19]);
+        var expectedFailure1 = createFailure([20, 8], [20, 9]);
+        var expectedFailure2 = createFailure([20, 15], [20, 16]);
+        var expectedFailure3 = createFailure([20, 18], [20, 19]);
 
         Lint.Test.assertContainsFailure(actualFailures, expectedFailure1);
         Lint.Test.assertContainsFailure(actualFailures, expectedFailure2);
+        Lint.Test.assertContainsFailure(actualFailures, expectedFailure3);
     });
 
     it("enforces whitespace in while statements", () => {