The distinction between income and consumption taxes is largely political. The buyer's consumption is the seller's income.

For example, VAT as applied to securities transactions is basically just another name for capital gains tax.

VAT isn't traditionally applied to the purchase of labor, but that doesn't make much difference because only expenses where VAT was collected on purchase should be deductible when it's collected on sale, so it just means the same tax is paid on the other side when the products of the labor are sold.