Gift tax

On the news I saw a report about a man, Robert Smith who gave a commencement speech and then promised to pay off all the student debt of the graduates and my first thought was Oh oh. Having volunteered to do taxes for people at the senior center I knew that regulations would get in the way. Doing taxes is one of the best ways to see how regulations can be overdone. Will the students pay tax on the gift as it is canceled debt?. Will parents who saved money in 523 plans have to redo their taxes for those years. Will this reduce his life time gift tax deduction. It likely would if he paid off all the loans at once but if he paid them as they come due he could get around the gift tax using the $15,000 annual exclusion. There are probably other pitfalls using grants. The point is there are too many regulations not only regarding taxation but most everything else.