$ perl -e'
my $line ="A\tB\tC\tD\t\t\t\t\n";

print "Test string line: $line";

print "Split without chomp: ";
count_fields( $line );

print "Split _after_ chomp: ";
chomp $line;
count_fields( $line );

exit 0;

sub count_fields {
    my ($line) = @_;

    my @x = split /\t/, $line, -1;

    my $count = @x;

    print "$count fields.\n";
}
'
Test string line: A     B       C       D
Split without chomp: 8 fields.
Split _after_ chomp: 8 fields.