Is the Value Added Tax a Sales Tax?

In most Western countries they have what's called a value added tax. A value added tax is like the retail sales tax that state governments offer except it really applies to everything so you normally don't pay sales tax on plumbers, lawyers or cars. Instead of being added on at the cash register it's done by corporations through their internal balance sheets. It has a enforcement similarity to a corporate income tax which is how it got into the corporate income tax discussion.