From what you have stated above, it sounds like you should be able to use the Head of Household Filing Status and claim your Mother as a Dependent.
In order to use the Head of Household filing status, you must have provided over half the support for the household for you and a qualifying person. You check out this TurboTax FAQ for more information: Do I qualify for Head of Household?
You can claim your mother as a Dependent if she meets ALL of the qualifications below:
- She is a citizen of the US
- She is related to you
- She has taxable income of less than $4,150 during 2018 (SS does not count as SS income)
- She is not claimed as a dependent by anyone else
- She is not filing a joint return
- You provided more than 1/2 of her support
[Note: You mention that your Mother has filed her own taxes because of the properties but also said she does not rent them out, so I am assuming that she rented them out in the years that she needed to file.]
You can also check out this IRS Tool which walks you through a set of questions to help determine if you can claim someone as a Dependent: https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/whom-may-i-claim-as-a-dependent.
Please comment below if you need further clarification.
