diff --git a/pkg/router/ingress_test.go b/pkg/router/ingress_test.go
index 803595be..f330777c 100644
--- a/pkg/router/ingress_test.go
+++ b/pkg/router/ingress_test.go
@@ -48,9 +48,6 @@ func TestIngressRouter_Reconcile(t *testing.T) {
 	inCanary, err := router.kubeClient.NetworkingV1().Ingresses("default").Get(context.TODO(), canaryName, metav1.GetOptions{})
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 
-	annotation := inCanary.Annotations["kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/checksum"]
-	assert.Equal(t, "", annotation)
-
 	// test initialisation
 	assert.Equal(t, "true", inCanary.Annotations[canaryAn])
 	assert.Equal(t, "0", inCanary.Annotations[canaryWeightAn])
@@ -184,6 +181,5 @@ func TestIngressRouter_ABTest(t *testing.T) {
 		// test initialisation
 		assert.Equal(t, "true", inCanary.Annotations[canaryAn])
 		assert.Equal(t, "test", inCanary.Annotations[table.annotation])
-		assert.Equal(t, "", inCanary.Annotations["kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/checksum"])
 	}
 }
diff --git a/pkg/router/util.go b/pkg/router/util.go
index 5f389fb0..72e08806 100644
--- a/pkg/router/util.go
+++ b/pkg/router/util.go
@@ -28,16 +28,7 @@ func includeLabelsByPrefix(labels map[string]string, includeLabelPrefixes []stri
 }
 
 func filterMetadata(meta map[string]string) map[string]string {
-	res := make(map[string]string)
-	for k, v := range meta {
-		// remove Flux ownership
-		if strings.Contains(k, toolkitMarker) {
-			continue
-		}
-		res[k] = v
-	}
-
 	// prevent Flux from overriding Flagger managed objects
-	res[toolkitReconcileKey] = toolkitReconcileValue
-	return res
+	meta[toolkitReconcileKey] = toolkitReconcileValue
+	return meta
 }