diff --git a/base/compiler/typeutils.jl b/base/compiler/typeutils.jl
index 546f4e90bd478..ebf148f428383 100644
--- a/base/compiler/typeutils.jl
+++ b/base/compiler/typeutils.jl
@@ -75,10 +75,29 @@ function typesubtract(@nospecialize(a), @nospecialize(b), MAX_UNION_SPLITTING::I
         ub = unwrap_unionall(b)
         if ub isa DataType
             if a.name === ub.name === Tuple.name &&
-                    length(a.parameters) == length(ub.parameters) &&
-                    1 < unionsplitcost(a.parameters) <= MAX_UNION_SPLITTING
-                ta = switchtupleunion(a)
-                return typesubtract(Union{ta...}, b, 0)
+                    length(a.parameters) == length(ub.parameters)
+                if 1 < unionsplitcost(a.parameters) <= MAX_UNION_SPLITTING
+                    ta = switchtupleunion(a)
+                    return typesubtract(Union{ta...}, b, 0)
+                elseif b isa DataType
+                    # if exactly one element is not bottom after calling typesubtract
+                    # then the result is all of the elements as normal except that one
+                    notbottom = fill(false, length(a.parameters))
+                    for i = 1:length(notbottom)
+                        ap = a.parameters[i]
+                        bp = b.parameters[i]
+                        notbottom[i] = !(ap <: bp && isnotbrokensubtype(ap, bp))
+                    end
+                    let i = findfirst(notbottom)
+                        if i !== nothing && findnext(notbottom, i + 1) === nothing
+                            ta = collect(a.parameters)
+                            ap = a.parameters[i]
+                            bp = b.parameters[i]
+                            ta[i] = typesubtract(ap, bp, min(2, MAX_UNION_SPLITTING))
+                            return Tuple{ta...}
+                        end
+                    end
+                end
             end
         end
     end
diff --git a/test/compiler/inference.jl b/test/compiler/inference.jl
index 586af7551ff45..9f45de723acb2 100644
--- a/test/compiler/inference.jl
+++ b/test/compiler/inference.jl
@@ -2630,8 +2630,20 @@ end
 
 f() = _foldl_iter(step, (Missing[],), [0.0], 1)
 end
-@test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(Tuple{Union{Int,Char}}, Tuple{Char}, 1) == Tuple{Union{Int,Char}}
+@test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(Tuple{Union{Int,Char}}, Tuple{Char}, 0) == Tuple{Int}
+@test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(Tuple{Union{Int,Char}}, Tuple{Char}, 1) == Tuple{Int}
 @test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(Tuple{Union{Int,Char}}, Tuple{Char}, 2) == Tuple{Int}
+@test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(NTuple{3, Union{Int, Char}}, Tuple{Char, Any, Any}, 0) ==
+        Tuple{Int, Union{Char, Int}, Union{Char, Int}}
+@test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(NTuple{3, Union{Int, Char}}, Tuple{Char, Any, Any}, 10) ==
+        Union{Tuple{Int, Char, Char}, Tuple{Int, Char, Int}, Tuple{Int, Int, Char}, Tuple{Int, Int, Int}}
+@test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(NTuple{3, Union{Int, Char}}, NTuple{3, Char}, 0) ==
+        NTuple{3, Union{Int, Char}}
+@test Core.Compiler.typesubtract(NTuple{3, Union{Int, Char}}, NTuple{3, Char}, 10) ==
+        Union{Tuple{Char, Char, Int}, Tuple{Char, Int, Char}, Tuple{Char, Int, Int}, Tuple{Int, Char, Char},
+              Tuple{Int, Char, Int}, Tuple{Int, Int, Char}, Tuple{Int, Int, Int}}
+
+
 @test Base.return_types(Issue35566.f) == [Val{:expected}]
 
 # constant prop through keyword arguments