You should not assume the city is waiting intentionally just to increase fines. It takes all tax authorities a year or two to match the information they receive from 3rd parties, like employers, to any specific tax return, so this is normal. Even the IRS, with the biggest and most sophisticated computer system, takes a year or two to send out notices. The smaller the municipality, or the older their computer system, the longer it usually takes. TurboTax includes some cities in their programs, but not many, and it depend on the state. The city tax, if included at all, is at the end of the state return and you have to initiate it.
If you're billed for a penalty, and not interest, you can request, in response to the bill, to have the penalty abated. Interest is usually statutory and cannot be abated. Whether the city complies or not to your request is totally up to the city. You should both check the printout of your filed returns for 2017 to see if a city tax was included, to minimize any nonfiling penalty.
You should always follow the program's recommendation to print and review your returns to make sure they're accurate and complete.
