Disability Benefits / Withholding

[Guest britneyspears]

Are disability benefits received by a participant from a qualified retirement plan on account of disability subject to mandatory withholding?

[stevena]

My understanding (and assuming that the ee is taking out a distribution and that the disability is the "triggering event" making the ee eligible for the distribution?)

Yes, the distribution is subject to withholding. It isnt an RMD, a periodic payment, a hardship, a corrective distribution, a loan treated as a distribution, a dividend on employer securities, or the cost of life insurance, which are the only things that are not subject to withholding (if I am thinking of them all)

As an aside, I know that if the disability is "qualifiying", the ee may not be subject to the 10% penalty. I have never researched what makes it qualifying...