Actually, the VAT is neither an income tax nor a consumption tax; it is a tax on incremental work-in-process, hence, a "value-added" tax.
Unless the public has the resolve to keep a close eye on our elected representatives, any tax system can be abused and morphed to their liking.
The VAT tax is a tax embedded in the retail price, exactly the same as the Fair Tax. Similarly, it also doesn't apply to used goods. The structure of the VAT tax is there to prevent some of the common methods of avoiding a tax imposed only at the retail level.
Regardless of how you parse it, both the VAT and Fair Tax can be calculated as a %of the final retail price.
The VAT just takes a proportional bite at each level of production.