Ok, once again.
If employer and employee are in cohesion with their stories about the 'gift' the IRS can't prove they did anything wrong. And yes it's illegal to avoid taxes, no one said otherwise.
It's hard to prove that you're purposely avoiding paying the taxes on it.
That's why it's a loophole.
Form IRS regarding gifts. "What is considered a gift?
Any transfer to an individual, either directly or indirectly, where full consideration (measured in money or money's worth) is not received in return."
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=108139,00.html
Yeah, you keep citing that and ignoring the fact that "gifts" as such between employers and employees are not even permitted. If you are audited (and I'm sure SJ has been more than once), any examiner worth anything assigned to work on such a high-profile return is going to look for any evidence of off-the-books transfers that weren't reported and if you have millions in bank accounts you can't account for or explain, well, I hope you enjoy getting prosecuted.
So unless you have some information that Apple and SJ conspire to transfer funds or assets without reporting them, you don't have any point (and if they were doing such a thing, it wouldn't be called a loophole (which is generally legal and a function of following the letter of the law), it would be evasion (which definitely is not).)