Adminstrative Expenses....

[H Gilmer3]

I get the reasoning behind it. I really do. But on the 2nd level of difficulty, I don't see why it is necessary to take over 50% of my income and leave me at minus (200) gold per turn, give or take. The game is unbeatable if I'm not making any money and am losing this much every turn.

How do I reduce these admin expenses?

[Pocus]

You mean you play at Balanced difficulty, right?

There is nothing you can do 'aggressively' to reduce administrative burden. You just need to know that it comes mostly from how developed your regions are (and the number of your regions), so small countries or underdeveloped ones have no issue.

Believe me, the rule has been eased up and now it seems players (most of them ) are happy with the setting. If you find you are short on money, then probably you are not allocating enough population to commerce and/or you don't build enough commerce buildings. You can't expect to have enough money if you don't put a part of your population and buildings slots to commerce.
Also, large armies cripple finances, particularly in wars. When at peace, you get a 25% discount for your units somehow, because units in your home territory gets this reduction.

I humbly suggest you take a 2nd look at your nation and see how you can squeeze more money. The game appears (again for most players) balanced on econ, and is even 'easy' for many of them.