Trump Turnberry receives £110,000 tax rebate

A luxury golf resort on the Ayrshire coast owned by Donald Trump was handed a £110,000 tax rebate by Scottish ministers as part of an emergency bailout aimed at helping small businesses.

Donald Trump outside the Turnberry clubhouse in 2015. Picture: John Devlin/TSPL

The Trump Turnberry resort received a “mandatory” rebate as part of a relief scheme to reduce the property taxes paid by the hospitality industry.

It was introduced by the Scottish Government following complaints from businesses in the north-east of Scotland suffering from an economic downturn caused by a drop in oil prices and subsequently applied across the country.

Trump Turnberry had its property tax cut by £109,530 as a result of the measure, a freedom of information request made by The Guardian and The Ferret news agency found.

MSPs said the figures highlighted the unfairness of a property tax system which took no account of a business’s profitability.

“Trump’s brand is toxic,” Scottish Greens leader Patrick Harvie told The Guardian. “It’s bad enough that he has a business presence in Scotland. It’s galling to learn that the public purse is giving him a helping hand.”

The US president said earlier this year that the Ayrshire resort was doing “unbelievably” because of the fall in the value of the pound after the Brexit vote.

Mr Trump bought and renamed the resort for £34m in 2014. His son Eric now manages his golf business, who declared in June that his family had “made Turnberry great again”.

The family-owned firm now hopes to build a second 18-hole course at its Trump International Golf Links Scotland resort north of Aberdeen but has faced opposition from environmentalists.