But isn't this still totally unfair to the consumer because rich businessman end up paying not much more VAT than lower income consumers? I mean sales taxes come mostly from the lower and middle class, it suprises mean that such left-leaning European countries would let rich people get away with only paying VAT taxes on what they buy.

If that were the only tax, yes it would sound a bit unfair. But the rich businessman will be paying much more income tax than the lower-income people, and his business will be paying corporation tax on its profits.

VAT is theoretically a tax on businesses: if a business buys raw materials for £X and makes from them products which it sells for £Y, it pays VAT on the difference, Y-X. That's why it's called Value Added Tax: it's a tax on value-add, on margin. Of course the perception is that it's a tax on consumers, because consumers see businesses buying supplies (computers, say) at the VAT-exclusive price, whereas technically they're paying the VAT-inclusive price but claiming back the VAT.

Peter