On July 1, 1979, the Kaohsiung City was approved to upgrade to an Executive Yuan-administered city. Following the common practice, the Ministry of Finance then established the Kaohsiung National Tax Administration. Mr. CHANG, Yao-Dong was designated as the first Director-general to take responsibilities in pioneering a functional organization of the Administration according to the collection operation procedures, which include tax service, information management, examination, auditing, collection, legal affairs, planning, civil service ethics, and investigation. Taxation system in our country was then migrated to a new era.

When the Administration was first established, it took over the national tax collection functions of the pre-reorganized Kaohsiung City and Siaogang Township, Kaohsiung County, received a total staff of 161 from tax collection offices of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone, and gradually established 11 offices spreading in each administration district and export processing zone. Then, when the business tax collection functions were transferred to the Administration on January 1, 2003, the Administration received an additional staff of 268 from tax collection offices of Kaohsiung City. Further, in line with the merger and reorganization of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County on December 25, 2010, the Administration received a staff of 347 from National Tax Administration of Southern Taiwan Province, Ministry of Finance. Currently, the Administration has a total staff of about 1,300..

On January 1, 2003, the task of business tax collection originally performed by the Revenue Service Office, Kaohsiung City was transferred to the Administration. On June 1 ,2011, the Specifically Selected Goods and Services Tax was put in force. Since then the Administration has been responsible for collection of ten taxes including Profit-seeking Enterprise Income Tax, Individual Income Tax, Estate Tax, Gift Tax, Commodity Tax, Securities Transactions Tax, Futures Transactions Tax, Tobacco and Alcohol tax, Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax, and the Specifically Selected Goods and Services Tax. Ever since its establishment, the Administration has been complying with the Ministry of Finance's policy, which consists of three major goals: pioneering a functional organization, thoroughly improving taxation practices, and automation of operation. With efforts contributed by all former and current Directors and staff, our organization and practices are operating smoothly and are adopted by the Ministry of Finance for national implementation in other tax collection agencies. Public service results and taxation discipline improvement are especially praised by supervisory agencies and the general public. Thanks to such a profound basis built over time, though the Administration was rated by the Executive Yuan as a second-class government agency when it was first established, the total amount of tax it collected in 2008 reached NT$128.5 billion, which was a 14-time increase from that in the year of its establishment. Therefore, in November 2008, the Administration applied for promotion of class and was approved by the Executive Yuan. On January 1, 2009, the Administration became a first-class government agency and at the same time, its subordinated San Min Tax Collection Office was reorganized as San Min Branch. In 2011, the Administration took over the national tax collection functions of the former Kaohsiung County and additionally established Fengshan Branch,Gangshan Office and Cishan Office. In 2012, because of  the  Organizational Reform of the Executive Yuan , the Administration  dissolved its subordinated Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone Office and Nantzu Export Processing Zone Office. Therefore, the Administration has again turned a new page on its high quality and efficient administration.