Stamp duty receipts fall by £1bn as attacks on landlords continue Sam Meadows details in the Sunday Telegraph how stamp duty receipts have been decimated by a series of attacks on buy-to-let investors. Figures published last week by HMRC show the tax take from stamp duty fell to £11.9bn in 2018-19 from £12.9bn the previous year after a decade of almost constant increases. As a result of the squeeze on landlords, the number of mortgages taken out by buy-to-let investors has fallen by 7.7% year-on-year, according to figures from UK Finance, while David Smith of the Residential Landlords Association fears fatal damage to the private rented sector with tenants also suffering.