Weird tax refund ?

[IChangedMyNameForThisQ]

I wonder if anyone can help, or tell me what might be going on with HMRC ?

The facts:

worked for 8 years for a company at around £42,000 p/a

Was made redundant in February 2017. With 3 months notice I was paid up till May 2017, plus redundancy.

Did not return straight to work. Lived off savings.

Around the mid April/May 2017 I received a refund from HMRC for overpaid tax. This made sense as I had been taxed as normal for the 3 months of my notice and then earned nothing more in 2017.

So far so good.

Earlier this month I returned to work and have just received my first payslip with my tax code all correct.

Then yesterday I came home to a letter from HMRC saying they had overcharged me while working up to 2017 and that they are issuing a £884.xx refund.

While makes no sense.

What alarms me slightly is that the figure looks suspiciously similar to the refund in 2017.

On the basis that HMRC can never do any wrong, it would be churlish of me to even think about approaching them. So I wondered if anyone here might have a clue as to why the fact of my startnig a new job after nearly 4 years of economuic inactivity should prompt HMRC into refunding tax from 4 years ago. Especially when I thought they had already done that ?

As far as I know I've done everything by the book which means just receiveing the annual notices from HMRC about my situation. And they always seemed correct.

Obviously I can't post too much identifying detail, but my main concern is that I do not want a nasty "Oh we made a mistake" letter from HMRC which could cause them some existential angst.

Thanks in advance for all replies.

Just ring them? They’re generally very helpful in the phone.

I don’t really get your history. If you worked three months notice from February until May then there is no reason for your deductions to have been incorrect for the tax year ending 5.4.17, which would have presumably been one month of your notice period. Then you would have been paid the next two months in April & May ‘17 but then I cannot see how a refund could have been triggered in mid May.

I realise it is a few years ago, could you have got some details mixed up. I am wondering if the refund you got related to something else as I don’t see how you would have got it so quickly otherwise.

To your actual question, no I cannot see how starting a new job after three or four years would trigger a refund from four years ago. Calling them is one option, I was also even inclined to wonder if it were one of those tax refund scams, did you actually get the cheque?

Cheque arrived today.