My wife and I are filing jointly as WA state residents. She earned $1325 for a job she did in NYC...do we need to file an entire NY State return?

[boyd]

The work was done as an independent contractor and they withheld taxes before paying her

[IsabellaG · Accepted solution]

Yes, you would file a Nonresident tax return for NY. New York computes the tax for a Nonresident as if the taxpayer were a full-year resident of NY, then the tax is multiplied by a percentage based on the NY income vs total federal income. 

Make sure that you enter the NY withholding in the federal section of your return.