Welcome to the Intuit Community, gressgardens,

Thanks for choosing QuickBooks Online.

To record the payment you've made to HMRC for the VAT Return filed outside of QuickBooks, you can create an Expense transaction under Expense account.

To create an Expense account, here's what you'll need to do:

1. Go to Accounting from the left navigation menu.
2. Click New button at the upper right hand.
3. Choose Expenses for the Account Type, then select Taxes Paid for the Detail Type.
4. Enter a Name for this account, and click Save and Close.

To create an Expense account, here's what you'll need to do:

1. Click the Plus (+) icon at the top.
2. Click Expenses.
3. Enter the necessary information.
4. In the Category details section, choose Taxes Paid account for the Category, Description, Amount, then select No VAT for the VAT column.
5. Click Save and close.

That's it! If there's anything else you need help with in recording transactions, please let me know. I'd be happy to assist. Have a great day!

Fantastic!  Thanks for your help.

Hi, just double checking as to whether this should in fact be an expense?  I'm no expert but was always under the impression that Taxes are not an expense, please could you update me.  Thanks

Thanks for getting back to us, @gressgardens. 

I can provide clarification on the accounts affected when recording your VAT payments in the program. 

If you used the program to pay your VAT returns, it'll post a liability and a suspense account for it. Since the payment was directly paid to HMRC and the VAT period isn't registered in the program, you'll need to record it as an expense. Then, you'll have to choose the Taxes Paid as a detail type.

Please see the screenshot below to serve as your visual guide.  

After that, you can perform the steps provided by my peer above on how to create an expense. 

If you want to pay and file a VAT return in the software, here's a great article you can refer to: File your VAT return and record tax payments in QuickBooks Online.

This will clear your confusion about the VAT posting accounts, @gressgardens. I'm here anytime you need anything else. Have a great day!

Ok, great, just wanted to make absolutely sure.  I have performed these steps, its is not showing in my P&L Report, is that correct?  Should I just bring this to the attention of my Accountant fro when he is preparing year end figures?

Hi gressgardens

Is the date of the expense you created within the date range of the P&L you are running?

Ah yes, I signed up for QBO w.e.f 1st January, so should I date it prior to that date to remove it?

Hi gressgardens

You will have to date the transaction the date it was debited from your bank.

I'm still confused, just to clarify, I submitted a VAT return for Oct, Nov, Dec 2018 using Gov Gateway as I was not using QBO at this time.  I have since signed up for QBO with my starting date as 1st January 2019.  The actual payment for the 12/18 VAT return was made in January.  I am still confused as to why this should show as an expense, because of this, my P & L report shows I'm making a loss not a profit!