If I don't have a court appointed personal representative for my deceased mother, but I'm trying to file her final tax return that shows she would get a refund, how do I file the return properly?

[MinhT1]

You can file the last tax return for your deceased mother.

The filing of a deceased taxpayer's final return usually falls to the executor or administrator of the estate, but if neither is named,  then the task needs to be taken over by a survivor of the deceased, i.e. yourself.

The final return is filed on the same form that would have been used if the taxpayer were still alive, but "deceased" is written after the taxpayer's name. The deadline to file a final return is the tax filing deadline of the year following the taxpayer's death.

Only income earned between the beginning of the year and the date of death should be reported on the decedents’ final return. Earnings after the date of death are taxable to the beneficiary of the account or to the estate.

When filing the final tax return for the deceased, TurboTax Online will ask whether the return is being filed for someone who has passed away in the My Info section. TurboTax will then report "Deceased" on the return.

For more information, please this TurboTax article.

I am sorry for your loss.

[kyanstia]

Thank you! It keeps saying I need a form 1310 which seems to be required to be filled out by a court appointed personal representative. But it does give me an option to say that we do not have a court appointed PR and then goes to a new screen where it asks for a persons name, SSN and phone number. I guess my real question is, if I say no, then go to that screen and put in my sisters info (who was my mother's executor), will that work? I just would hate to do all this and have the return rejected or something come back later and be told it was wrong. It's not super clear to me. 

[MonikaK1]

Yes, you can proceed to complete the return by answering the follow-up questions in TurboTax as you described.

See also this TurboTax help article.