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Way before Eth, the IMF code (and its business brother BMF) is the law. Think the MF is wrong? Open a case and wait a month for the tax code analyst (often a lawyer) to respond with a writeup why your intepretation of written tax code and regs is wrong and the MF is correct.

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Is it possible for a taxpayer to get a copy and dry-run it themselves?

In France it is: https://framagit.org/openfisca/calculette-impots-m-source-co...

The source code is actually available, written in a language called 'M'. It's been discussed a few times here on HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25208853 (just to link one example).

You would need an IBM mainframe.

For the record emulators exist:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(emulator)

Not sure how hard it is to get the system software.

There are other ways to get time on one, including via IBM in an 'online course' of sorts:

* https://mainframenation.com/mainframe/how-to-get-a-mainframe...

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