My mother died on Jan 15th 2016.....do I have to file a federal tax return for her for 2016?

[Carl]

I'm sorry for your loss. Does your late mother have any reportable income for 2016? When she passed, were there any assets that were disposed of or transferred into an estate? If so, is the estate still active? Also, what state? That matters.

[martiniman93]

She received only social security check on Jan 1st....no other income....her estate has been distributed to the family, so her estate is closed....were in Washington State

[Carl]

If SS was the absolute only source of income in 2016, then no tax return need be filed, HOWEVER, the administrator of the estate must be thorough. For example, if "the estate" sold your mom's house, and it was sold at a gain, then "the estate" may be required to file a tax return, report it, and pay taxes on it. This is just one example I am providing you.
I do this because if the IRS would have any reason to question the handling of the estate (I don't see why they would), then if it's determined that taxes were due, the IRS can do what is called a "clawback" of distributed wealth from the heirs, back into the estate so that taxes due along with fines, penalties and late fees, can be collected from the estate.
If you have a good and knowledgeable estate attorney, they should be well aware of all this, and you should be able to hold them legally and financially liable and culpable if things come back to bite you in the future because the attorney didn't handle things right, or they didn't property advise the estate administrator.

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

Like any other person, she would have to file a tax return if her taxable income (interest, investments, etc) is more than $10,350 (for a single person who is not claimed as someone else's dependent, or more than $6300 for a single person who is claimed as someone else's dependent).  Under your current set of facts, she does not need a final return filed for 2016.  (You could file one if you wanted, it would show no tax owed, and it would prevent someone else from using her SSN to commit tax fraud.)

However, watch her mail through March or so of next year.  If she had income on investments, a pension, IRA, bank accounts, etc., then you may get 1099 statements for related income, that you will need to take into account regarding those thresholds.

(Also note there is at least one unusual circumstance where the filing threshold is only $5 of taxable income; if she was separated from a spouse but still legally married and the spouse itemizes deductions on their tax return.  For more, look at "who must file" here https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf)

One last note: because she died in January, the IRS will probably have blocked her SSN by the tax time. So if you do file a return you will have to mail it in instead of e-filing.