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New York uses total federal income to calculate a base tax rate for part-year and nonresidents. It is not usual that you would owe NY tax on a joint return where only one person has NY income. Without knowing details about your income and withholding, I can’t tell whether $600 or $800 is reasonable or unreasonable.
After calculating a base tax on your total income, NY prorates the actual tax by the ratio of NY income to total income. This produces a higher tax rate, because the rate is based on your total income and not just your NY income.
Look at page 2 of your IT-203 to see what income is actually being taxed by NY. The New York State amount in the right column is NY income.
Line 45 on page 3 shows the allocation of NY state tax (NY state amount / federal amount) = NY percentage. This percentage is multiplied by the base tax of line 44 to come up with allocated NY state tax on line 46.
Michigan gives you a credit for tax paid to NY, but it is limited to 4.25%, because MI is a flat rate state. In comparison, NY’s second lowest tax bracket is 4.5% and it goes up to 8.82%.
Your wife can file a separate NY return, even if you file together for federal.
Related Resource:
How do I prepare a joint federal return and separate state returns?
