Withhold on death bene paid to charitable NFP?

I've got a participant who died at age 69 and one month back in December 2016.  Her beneficiary designation form says to pay her account balance to some charitable NFP (she was not married at time of death).  Is there any withholding taken from the payment?  Thanks.

Not an eligible rollover distribution, so no.

What about the other default withholding?  10%?

Isn't there a take-out for payments not subject to FIT?

Is it not true that any amounts withheld would, without question, be paid back to the non-profit as a tax refund? 

Assuming that the deceased participant's estate is not multi-millions.  Are any taxes due on a $10,000 lump sum from a plan payable to an estate below $1 million?  No ordinary income taxes, no estate taxes?

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What are you talking about? 

Estates under however many millions ($3 million, $5 million?  never really bothered to learn the cutoff as it would not apply to me) pay no estate taxes.  The so-called "death tax" is never paid by people of normal wealth.

Would a death benefit distribution payable from a pension plan be subject to any income taxes?  If so, who would owe them?

If the death distribution from a plan is payable to a not for profit and any formulaic taxes were withheld, then the not for profit would be able to claim them as a refund, since no taxes would be owed by the not for profit.

If the question was addressed to me, those were my points.

Why is the tax filing status a concern of the plan? 

Could the plan satisfy it's obligation by providing the W-4P, to be completed by the estate  (If you have forgotten, Line 1 of the W-4P is "Check here if you do not want any federal income tax withheld from your pension or annuity.)"

David Rigby:  That approach can work, but I think if one looks at the law one would find that there is no default withholding here require a waiver by the beneficiary.

From IRS page on Pensions and Annuity WH:

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Nonperiodic Payments

Unless you choose no withholding, the withholding rate for a nonperiodic distribution (a payment other than a periodic payment) that is not an eligible rollover distribution, is 10% of the distribution. You can also ask the payer to withhold an additional amount using Form W-4P. The part of any loan treated as a distribution (except an offset amount to repay the loan), explained later, is subject to withholding under this rule.

Get the bene to elect no WH and move on to the next thing.

And what if for some (stupid) reason they refuse?  Withhold 10%?  That would be a mistake IMHO.

It would be a mistake for them but not for the plan to follow their (stupid) instructions.  I don't quite get why you are creating an artificial situation.  We would certainly have correspondence with them before processing a distribution, and get them to sign a form.  If they didn't elect out of WH, we'd talk to them and get them to do that.  I don't see a scenario beyond that where they actually elect WH, but if they did, then we'd follow their instructions.

If there is withholding, they have only to file a tax return and they will get it all back, right?

Not so easy for a 990 filer to get a refund of this kind of withheld tax.  Even tougher if it's a church entity that doesn't file 990s. 

Bird, it's not my intention to create an artificial situation.  I am just trying to address the original question as succinctly as possible, which is whether w/h is required, and the answer is "no."  The caveats about electing out or not electing out are inapplicable.