diff --git a/src/Tasks/Microsoft.NET.Build.Tasks/build/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.BeforeCommon.targets b/src/Tasks/Microsoft.NET.Build.Tasks/build/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.BeforeCommon.targets
index 6ccaa9aa2657..d6bc0d9a8f22 100644
--- a/src/Tasks/Microsoft.NET.Build.Tasks/build/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.BeforeCommon.targets
+++ b/src/Tasks/Microsoft.NET.Build.Tasks/build/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.BeforeCommon.targets
@@ -77,19 +77,28 @@ Copyright (c) .NET Foundation. All rights reserved.
   </PropertyGroup>
   
   <ItemGroup Condition=" '$(DisableImplicitFrameworkReferences)' != 'true' and '$(TargetFrameworkIdentifier)' == '.NETFramework'">
+
     <Reference Include="System"/>
-    <Reference Include="System.Core"/>
     <Reference Include="System.Data"/>
     <Reference Include="System.Drawing"/>
+    <Reference Include="System.Xml"/>
+
     <!-- When doing greater than/less than comparisons between strings, MSBuild will try to parse the strings as Version objects and compare them as
          such if the parse succeeds. -->
+    
+    <!-- Framework assemblies introduced in .NET 3.5 -->
+    <Reference Include="System.Core" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '3.5' "/>
+    <Reference Include="System.Runtime.Serialization" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '3.5' "/>
+    <Reference Include="System.Xml.Linq" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '3.5' "/>
+
+    <!-- Framework assemblies introduced in .NET 4.0 -->
+    <Reference Include="System.Numerics" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '4.0' "/>
+
+    <!-- Framework assemblies introduced in .NET 4.5 -->
     <Reference Include="System.IO.Compression.FileSystem" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '4.5' "/>
     <Reference Include="System.IO.Compression" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '4.5' "/>
     <Reference Include="System.Net.Http" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '4.5' "/>
-    <Reference Include="System.Numerics" Condition=" '$(_TargetFrameworkVersionWithoutV)' >= '4.0' "/>
-    <Reference Include="System.Runtime.Serialization"/>
-    <Reference Include="System.Xml.Linq"/>
-    <Reference Include="System.Xml"/>
+
   </ItemGroup>
 
   <!-- Add conditional compilation symbols for the target framework (for example NET461, NETSTANDARD2_0, NETCOREAPP1_0) -->