Thanks Bill. II get what your saying.
If the plan didn't allow for any other distributable event, then the participant can't make the plan amend to allow a CRD, which would be a new type of distributable event.
But if the participant has a distributable event under current provisions, the distribution should be treated as a CRD for tax purposes if they are a qualified individual.
The issue we are running into is that many of the recordkeepers forms are only available if the plan sponsor "opts in" and most of the forms have some sort of certification that the plan will be amended or are permitting any kind of CRD. Taking it a step further, for some recordkeepers, once the sponsor "opts in" they are processing CRDs for any participant that self certifies, even if the plan sponsor did not intend to allow an "inservice CRD".
So either every qualified individual gets the special tax treatment, even if the plan was not intended to allow for a new distribution option, or no qualified individual gets special tax treatment.
And in this context I'm only concerned about how the withholding is done. I know the QI has all the other tax benefits when they do their taxes.