Lord Waldegrave was a local government minister when Margaret Thatcher asked him to find an alternative to rates.
But the former Bristol West MP told BBC Points West he had not intended it to be introduced in such a "gung-ho" way.
The community charge, introduced in Scotland in 1989 and England and Wales in 1990, led to riots in London and a mass non-payment campaign in Scotland.
The charge, which replaced the rates system, was levied on individuals rather than properties.
In his memoirs, William Waldegrave, who was Conservative MP for Bristol West from 1979 until 1997, described the community charge as "all my own work".
In an interview with BBC Points West, he said he was not alone among ministers backing the plan but added: "I think that I made a policy that looked as if it would work, intellectually if you like, theoretically, and delivered it to Mrs Thatcher, who liked it very much. And it was a serious mistake.
"I was too trusting of my bosses, as it were, to see as I saw, all the difficulties with it. They went gung ho and introduced it overnight in one go, which was never my plan and I thought they must know what there were doing - but they didn't."
In the London poll tax riots in 1990, up to 3,000 demonstrators turned on police. Of 113 people injured, 45 were police.
By the end of the year, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had stood down. She was replaced by John Major who scrapped the charge in favour of the council tax that continues today.

At the High Court in Livingston, Scott Macintosh was found guilty of attempted murder.
He had denied carrying out the attack on art graduate Kate Lampitt-Adey, 26, in her Edinburgh flat in August.
Macintosh, from Leith, claimed in his defence Miss Lampitt-Adey already had the injuries when he got to her flat.
The photographs, taken by a police officer an hour after the assault, show her entire face swollen and bruised.
Her eyes were badly bloodshot and fingertip bruises on either side of her windpipe could be seen where Macintosh, 36, repeatedly tried to choke her.
Police called to the scene by neighbours who heard her strangled screams for help were also attacked by the accused.
Officers found Miss Lampitt-Adey barricaded in a room in her Easter Road home "cowering" behind a bed.

29 April 2015 Last updated at 16:35 BST
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Police said the 34-year-old had been dropped off by taxi in the Milton area when he became involved in an argument.
The man was then attacked and badly injured after making off into Ashgill Road at about 00:25 on Saturday.
He was taken by ambulance to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where his condition was "critical but stable." The stabbing is being treated as attempted murder.
The attackers are described as white, all aged in their 20s.
Det Sgt John Dowds, of Police Scotland, said: "The injured man had just been dropped off by a taxi in Balmore Road near to Ashgill Street where it is believed he became involved in an argument with some people in the area.
"However, he made off into Ashgill Road where he was attacked by four men.
"He was very seriously injured with what was originally thought to be life-threatening injuries, however, thankfully now he seems to be in a critical but stable condition."
Police are urging anyone with information about the attack to come forward.
Creating the poll tax was a "serious mistake", one of the architects of the ill-fated charge has said.
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