Profits for the books are somewhat malleable by an accountant. There are still limitations to what you can do. For tax, rules are tighter. Even revenue is often not objective. For example, I sell someone a subscription to a service for a year. Do I record the revenue now (not a good idea), spread it out over 12 months (practical) or every time a user uses the service (not so practical, more realistic?).

Corporate tax is on profit. VAT like taxes are closer to revenue (or more accurately, closer to when you get paid by customers).