City Taxes

[nex]

Recently (around 2 weeks ago) someone I know received a notice about not filing their city taxes from 2016 and it is now 2018. They are being slapped with 2 fines of over 150$ (3x the amount of the actual tax) each. They did not receive any previous notices or calls about late filing. We both used this program and we both thought that this program filed city taxes as well. I still haven't received a notice about the late penalty and it has been over 6 months. I don't understand how the city can get away with purposefully not sending notices to attempt to get more penalties out of a person. I want to know if there is a way to appeal the penalty for late filing since the only reason I didn't pay the tax because I wasn't aware it was being paid. And if the city intentionally not sending notices about late filing to get more money wasn't enough, they also recently changed to mandatory filing without sending any notices. So I would have never known I needed to file if I wasn't working and still would have been slapped with a $150 penalty even though I would have owed $0 unless, in my scenario, I got a job near the end of the year so I filed my taxes online. Is there any way I can appeal this penalty, or am I and the other person just stuck with these ridiculous fines?

[Stinkerbellkity]

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.