diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 25d6c44a5..97d55ff82 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ type Config struct {
 	P2P       *P2PConfig       `mapstructure:"p2p"`
 	Mempool   *MempoolConfig   `mapstructure:"mempool"`
 	Consensus *ConsensusConfig `mapstructure:"consensus"`
+	TxIndex   *TxIndexConfig   `mapstructure:"tx_index"`
 }
 
 // DefaultConfig returns a default configuration for a Tendermint node
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ func DefaultConfig() *Config {
 		P2P:        DefaultP2PConfig(),
 		Mempool:    DefaultMempoolConfig(),
 		Consensus:  DefaultConsensusConfig(),
+		TxIndex:    DefaultTxIndexConfig(),
 	}
 }
 
@@ -37,6 +39,7 @@ func TestConfig() *Config {
 		P2P:        TestP2PConfig(),
 		Mempool:    DefaultMempoolConfig(),
 		Consensus:  TestConsensusConfig(),
+		TxIndex:    DefaultTxIndexConfig(),
 	}
 }
 
@@ -93,9 +96,6 @@ type BaseConfig struct {
 	// so the app can decide if we should keep the connection or not
 	FilterPeers bool `mapstructure:"filter_peers"` // false
 
-	// What indexer to use for transactions
-	TxIndex string `mapstructure:"tx_index"`
-
 	// Database backend: leveldb | memdb
 	DBBackend string `mapstructure:"db_backend"`
 
@@ -115,7 +115,6 @@ func DefaultBaseConfig() BaseConfig {
 		ProfListenAddress: "",
 		FastSync:          true,
 		FilterPeers:       false,
-		TxIndex:           "kv",
 		DBBackend:         "leveldb",
 		DBPath:            "data",
 	}
@@ -412,6 +411,27 @@ func (c *ConsensusConfig) SetWalFile(walFile string) {
 	c.walFile = walFile
 }
 
+//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// TxIndexConfig
+
+// TxIndexConfig defines the confuguration for the transaction
+// indexer, including tags to index.
+type TxIndexConfig struct {
+	// What indexer to use for transactions
+	Indexer string `mapstructure:"indexer"`
+
+	// Comma-separated list of tags to index (by default only by tx hash)
+	IndexTags string `mapstructure:"index_tags"`
+}
+
+// DefaultTxIndexConfig returns a default configuration for the transaction indexer.
+func DefaultTxIndexConfig() *TxIndexConfig {
+	return &TxIndexConfig{
+		Indexer:   "kv",
+		IndexTags: "tx.hash", // types.TxHashKey
+	}
+}
+
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // Utils
 
diff --git a/node/node.go b/node/node.go
index 5b8ab994a..c0e4197b9 100644
--- a/node/node.go
+++ b/node/node.go
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ func NewNode(config *cfg.Config,
 
 	// Transaction indexing
 	var txIndexer txindex.TxIndexer
-	switch config.TxIndex {
+	switch config.TxIndex.Indexer {
 	case "kv":
 		store, err := dbProvider(&DBContext{"tx_index", config})
 		if err != nil {