How does one classify a VAT payment for which there isn't a return recorded in Quickbooks (because they weren't ready to connect to HMRC)?

Hello KALEM,

Welcome to the Community - thank you for your question!

To record this payment, we advise to create a one-off expense account to use for this transaction. Go to Accounting > Chart of Accounts > New. Select Expenses as the account type, and Taxes Paid as the detail type - call this whatever you would like. Once saved, create an expense by going to the + icon > Expense and record the payment against this new account you have created. Going forward, QuickBooks will automatically use the VAT Control/Suspense accounts for future filings/payments. 

Thanks,

Talia