The crystal structure of tripotassium octafluoridotantalate, K3TaF8, determined from laboratory powder diffraction data by the simulated annealing method and refined by total energy minimization in the solid state, is built from discrete potassium cations, fluoride anions and monocapped trigonal–prismatic [TaF7]2+ ions. All six atoms in the asymmetric unit are in special positions of the P63mc space group: the Ta and one F atom in the 2b (3m) sites, the K and two F atoms in the 6c (m) sites, and one F atom in the 2a (3m) site. The structure consists of face-sharing K6 octahedra with a fluoride anion at the center of each octahedron, forming chains of composition [FK3]2+ running along [001] with isolated [TaF7]2- trigonal prisms in between. The structure of the title compound is different from the reported structure of Na3TaF8 and represents a new structure type.