All the money Apple gets come from customers, no? All of it. Do they print their own dollars or something? Are they subsidized by governments?
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?
I gather from your disdainful tone that you think you've just schooled me on something really fundamental, but the point you're trying to make is unclear to me. If you're asserting that VAT and the taxes paid on corporate profits are in reality one and the same, then no, that's wholly incorrect.
Yes, this is correct, although it may be more obvious to visitors than to residents.
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.
Sales taxes are collected by the seller for reasons of convenience. They are intended to act as taxes on the consumer. For political reasons this is as not obvious as possible.
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.
If you allow me some jest I would like to point out that at the checkout of my local stores I never saw officers collecting VAT, I usually just give all the due money to the cashier
I believe that part of the reason is that they still pay other taxes (eg VAT) in the country of sale.