Non UK Resident, best structure to develop properties in UK?

Hi Guys,

Wondered if anyone can help me clafiry some things. I am a UK citizen, but became non-resident 4 years ago (live in Shanghai) and have no intention of returning. I am purchasing land in UK to develop properties and wondered the best way to do it to minimise my tax bills.

Firstly I already have a BVI holding company which holds a lot of my London property which I rent out. I also have setup a UK LTD business (the development company, which employs 2 architects full time to do the development work) which is wholely owned by my HK holding company.

After reading a lot of articles on this, it seems that the best way for me to do this, is to buy the property personally, then sell on after developing… Does this mean I would be liable for CGT? Should I be putting costs through my UK Ltd company or minimising profit in that business (my only costs in that business are the office and the two salaries, so I could just leave that as a loss making business, but would that be taken into account on CGT bills?).

I did unfortunately buy one plot of land with my BVI company, only to find out that from April 2013 non-natural non-resident persons (i.e. my BVI company) would become liable for CGT on property sale. How do I ensure that all my costs are taken into account when selling this property? How much CGT % would be due?

UK becoming increasingly complicated these days!

Spencer