Sure, it's not the same as a revenue tax. But compared to a profits tax, money spent on company purchases also never makes it into the profit column. But money

Sure, it's not the same as a revenue tax. But compared to a profits tax, money spent on company purchases also never makes it into the profit column. But money the company later spends on salaries, is taxed by VAT. There's an argument that VAT is regressive but this isn't it. Who effectively pays (meaning economic incidence) is complicated. But sometimes it works out that poorer people pay a larger proportion of their income in VAT than do richer people. It seems entirely OK to have a mixture of regressive and progressive taxes. And sure, not completely free within the EU, but the range of acceptable rates is pretty wide, maybe 17-27 exist today? I haven't done the numbers but France could surely raise an order of magnitude more money from VAT than they collect from corporate profits, if they wished.