A Gram-positive, moderately halotolerant, rod-shaped bacterium, designated YIM 94025(T), was isolated from a soil sample from a salt lake in Xinjiang province, north-west China. Strain YIM 94025(T) was observed to grow at 25-45 °C (optimum 37 °C), 0-22 % NaCl (optimum 2-10 %) and pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum pH 8.0). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the organism belongs to the genus Tenuibacillus and exhibited sequence similarity of 98.0 % to the closest type strain, Tenuibacillus multivorans AS 1.3442(T). The predominant menaquinone was found to be MK-7; the cell-wall peptidoglycan diamino acid was meso-diaminopimelic acid; the polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, an unidentified phospholipid and an unknown lipid; and the major fatty acids were found to contain iso-C(15:0), anteiso-C(15:0) and iso-C(16:0). The chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain YIM 94025(T) are consistent with those of the genus Tenuibacillus. The level of DNA-DNA relatedness value between YIM 94025(T) and T. multivorans AS 1.3442(T) was 36.6 ± 4.5 %. The G+C content of the strain YIM 94025(T) was determined to be 38.5 %. Based on the comparative analysis of physiological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic data, as well as DNA-DNA hybridization results, the isolate is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Tenuibacillus, for which the name Tenuibacillus halotolerans sp. nov., is proposed, with the type strain of YIM 94025(T) (=CCTCC AB 2012860(T) = KCTC 33046(T)).