Policies can be applied to, and enforced for, specific resources by applying a corresponding tag to those resources. An entity, such as a customer of a resource provider, can generate one or more policies to be applied to a set of resources, where those policies can relate to data retention, backup, lifecycle events, and other such aspects. Each policy can be associated with a particular tag, which may comprise a key-value pair to be applied to various resources. A policy enforcement manager can determine the tagged resources and ensure that the relevant policies are applied. The policies can include logic or intelligence for performing a variety of tasks with respect to resources, groups of resources, or types of resources, as identified using the tags.