The Yeh's 4 x 4 matrix formalism is applied to determine the electromagnetic wave response in multilayers with arbitrary magnetization. With restriction to magneto-optic (MO) effects linear in the off-diagonal permittivity tensor elements, a simplified characteristic matrix for a magnetic layer is obtained. For a magnetic film-substrate system analytical representations of the MO response expressed in terms of the Jones reflection matrix are provided. These are numerically evaluated for cases when the magnetization develops in three mutually perpendicular planes.