VAT is a tax paid by the consumer, not the manufacturer. If you buy an iPhone, it's you that pays the VAT on it, not Apple.
If there was a 20% tax on revenue, companies would increase prices in kind…
Do the dollars that make up the profits, and the dollars that make up the taxes on profits, come from somewhere else than the dollars that make up the VAT?
The evidence that this is correct follows: visitors, tourists if you prefer, can collect reimbursement for VAT payments, the first link I hit was Norway but this is very common if not universal: https://www.toll.no/en/tourist-in-norway/reimbursement-of-va...
If VAT were a tax on the corporation, it would make no sense at all to reimburse it to specific consumers who are not obliged to pay it. That only makes sense when the tax is on the consumer, and merely collected by the corporation. Which is how VAT works.
The VAT sum is recorded at the time of sale, but the whole amount sits in the company finances until the VAT is settled with the exchequer.
The company holds the VAT sum between collection and settlement, potentially benefiting from the temporary cash flow in that period.
If they weren’t taxes intended to fall only on the consumer then:
* businesses wouldn’t be able to claim back sales taxes on their purchases.
* consumers wouldn’t be personally liable for taxes on goods they import.