Q:

SO renderer breaks Makefile syntax

The following answer contains an GNU Makefile:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/27190627/402322
I tried to use the Makefile on my system, but it does not work, because the syntax is broken. 
I edited the answer and corrected the syntax.  Indented lines need to be indented with exactly one tabulator and no spaces. 
But after saving the change I realized, that the answer gets rendered in a way, which breaks the syntax of the file.  The SO rendering replaces the tabulator with 4 spaces. 

A:

There's a workaround, as per mbomb007's answer to the Meta Stack Exchange feature request.  Writing this:
<pre><code>Hello! 
This is a tab:&#9;:bat a si sihT</code></pre>

makes:
Hello! 
This is a tab:	:bat a si sihT
This, however, is by no means perfect, since you have to manually escape &, < and >.  It is simply a hack.