A Nova Scotia teenager's complaint about being charged tax on a gift card has prompted Walmart Canada to review all gift cards sold across the country.

15-year-old Kate Mosher, of Robinson's Corner, got "worked up" when she was charged $7.50 HST on a $50 Kobo e-book gift card she bought Feb. 22. Her mother, small business owner Susan Mosher, called that "double-taxing" because purchases made with gifts card are taxed.

Susan took up the issue with the store in Bridgewater where the card was purchased. She says a customer service representative and a manager told her it was correct to charge the tax, so she asked that the issue be looked at higher up within the company.

'Tax should never be charged on a gift card'

It turns out, the customer was right.

"Tax should never be charged on a gift card," said Alex Roberton, director of corporate affairs at Walmart. "We regret that this happened and apologize to our customer."

He says the problem originated at the company's head office when it failed to send price and tax information for the cards to its stores. Without that information in Bridgewater, the card was rung through as a taxable item.

Roberton says the company is double-checking all gift cards at its 396 stores in Canada to ensure it doesn't happen again. He says it's possible other gift cards were incorrectly charged, but so far no other cases have been uncovered.