Cash Offers on House

Myself and my girlfriend are FTB and recently put a bid of €381k on a house we are interested in. As this is the upper limit for 3% stamp duty we were fairly confident we would get the house as the only other bidder was a FTB.
However the estate agent came back to us saying the other bidder has offered €381k and €1k cash for furniture and fittings. The estate agent now wants us to send in a sealed bid stating we are prepared to offer €381k + €X of cash. Surely this amounts to tax evasion? and am surprised that this estate agebt is facilitating this. We are definitely not prepared to pay any more and will def not enter into a cash transaction with the seller. We feel that unless the other bidder can legitimately top our original bid then we should get first choice? Any advice?

Tell the estate agent you'll be reporting him to Revenue for tax evasion and see if he changes his tune. You'll probably lose the house, mind you.... Is it a 'big name' agent?

Surely the seller is proposing to sell furniture at a loss here (1k). I don't see how there could be any tax liability for this

There would be an increased stamp duty liability for most people for the purchaser if house and contents were sold for 382,000 rather than 381,000 as the sale would be above a new threshold for second time buyers or investors.

Unfortunately, in my experience this happens all too often. I have heard of numerous people who have paid e.g. 190,499 + 10,000 cash in the old days when this was the limit for FTB exemption from stamp duty. Various estate agents seem to use it to push up prices for their clients but I suppose as a facilitator for the process, they're only passing on the offer to the vendor rather than being directly part of tax evasion. It's up to the vendor to accept or reject the offer and up to them to deal with the tax implications on their side.

these are considered related contracts as you cannot buy the furniture without the house and vice versa. i think in this situation the stamp duty bracket is decided by the whole amount but is only charged on the amount relating to the house.

You probably won't be getting any furniture either by the way. It's just an attempt to get around the stamp duty limit.