The village of Ta Kao was founded in the early 19th century by a group of
Khmer-origin settlers led by an elderly Kao (or Ta Kao); the village was then named Ta Kao in honor of the first village headman. At the early age, tambon Ta Kao was administrated from Thailand's former province, then was transferred to
Det Udom district in 1912. In 1974, Tambon Ta Kao, together with three other tambons, including
Song,
Dom Pradit, and
Yang, were split off from
Det Udom to create a province's new administrative division,
Nam Yuen district; the preparation for such an upgrade began in 1969 with the formation of
King amphoe (
small district) Nam Yuen. In 1977, Takao's northern half, which consisted of 11 villages, was split off to form a new tambon called
Khilek; a newly established tambon was later split off to create tambon
Phaibun in 1982. Its southwest territory was also promoted to tambon
Khok Sa-at in 1991. Later in 1996, Ta Kao and its all three mentioned descendant tambons were cut off from
Nam Yuen district to creat a province's new district,
Nam Khun. After independence, Tambon Ta Kao was governed by the Subdistrict Council of Ta Kao, which was upgraded to the
Subdistrict Administrative Organization (SAO) in 1997, ==Geography==