Resident v Non-resident

[Cass1]

Married couple domiciled in Georgia but spouse works in New York with the bulk of the income.  Both have Ga licenses.  Spouse is in NY 50% of the time.  Can the spouse be filed as non-resident of NY for tax purposes.  The lower income spouse does own a home in NY but it's just so the other spouse has a place to stay.

Any advice is appreciated.

[sjrcpa]

How close to 50% of the time is working spouse in NY? I think you'll find NY considers them a resident if they are there for 183 days. And they are liable to ask for proof if you claim otherwise. Their W-2 probably has all wages a NY wages.

[BobKamman]

Lot more goes into determining domicile than where someone has a (did you mean driver's?) license.  

[Cass1]

One spouse all NY state and city income, other spouse all GA income.

[BobKamman]

So, one spouse is  a NY resident and the other a GA resident.  Unless she's working remotely.  "Count the days in NY," from @sjrcpa , is good advice. Putting the home in the wife's name looks like an attempt to throw the Dept of Taxation off course, but ownership is public record and they have seen that one before. Have a fee agreement in place, for cost of helping with NYS correspondence audit, before finishing the returns.