Scottish golf courses owned by Donald Trump are expected to receive a tax debate of almost £1m as part of a government bailout for businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump Organisation's golf resorts in Aberdeenshire and Turnberry are to benefit from around £2.3bn worth of emergency funding from the Scottish Government, according to The Guardian.
This includes waiving property taxes paid by businesses in the hospitality, leisure and retail businesses this year.
They say Trump Turnberry had been due to pay £850,766 in property tax this year, while Trump Aberdeenshire was due to fork out £121,170.
READ MORE: Rangers announce partnership with golf resort Trump Turnberry
Local councils South Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire are expected to tell both businesses this week that they no longer have to pay that tax because they qualify for 100% relief as part of the bailout fund.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization told the Guardian that the resorts had used coronavirus emergency funding schemes but did not provide details on how much money had been claimed or how many staff were furloughed.
Green Aberdeenshire councillor Martin Ford admitted he did not object to Trump’s employees joining the furlough scheme but criticised the business rates relief.
He said: “Taxpayer assistance for a business owned by someone who boasts he is a multi-billionaire is quite another matter.
READ MORE: Scottish Greens call for 'McMafia order' to investigate Donald Trump's wealth
"Unlike many people, Mr Trump won’t be suffering any financial hardship. He doesn’t need help. Mr Trump was given every assistance to set up in Scotland and the Scottish government repeated his ridiculous claims of an enormous economic and jobs boost for the region.
"Now, after years of losses, Mr Trump’s Aberdeenshire business is actually getting taxpayer support, perhaps a final irony in a very sorry saga.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel