Company selling products has to pay taxes. Preorders are taxed as well (if not even worse), since they are advance sales. With Kickstarter it's more weird, since most people see it as a funding (investment) mechanism, however for the government it's still advance sales mechanism, and they tax it like crazy. That's the reality - projects lose a huge part of such funding money. That's why most attempt to find investors, rather than using crowdfunding, since in such case taxation doesn't apply in the same crazy manner.