There are plenty of places in EU with no income tax on business income. At least if you are a foreigner. Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, and probably more. Some countries have lump-sum income tax on foreign business income, like Greece (100K EUR per year you keep the rest).
Paperwork in those countries can take years but it only matters if you need entry visas/visas to travel elsewhere, so if you hold a first-world passport, you don't care, you file your paperwork and enjoy the rights of the permit you are applying for, from get go, and it's their problem how long it takes to get done. If you don't have a first world passport then yes, it's a pickle, because foreign embassies or immigration officials won't respect the 'application receipts' instead of a real document.
On the flip side, these countries are democratic and provide a path to citizenship and have a real society to integrate to, not literally 90% expat population who come and go and have both no potential (because no naturalisation) and no incentive, to integrate.