[md2be]

Tax law is a lot like coding, the answers are there if you know where to look. Generally, look to regulations for definitions, publications for working examples, and case law for ambiguities and ombudsman/case for unanswered questions.

In your case, the exercise date is the date of issue

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p525

https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/

[devnulloverflow]

Yes. In fact the tax law as the authorities apply it probably is code in the sense that they probably shove some inputs into some Excel spreadsheet to calculate your tax return.

(I'm exaggerating, they probably have bespoke software which they can use for auto-generating their spreadsheets).