When used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(1) DEPARTMENT. The Alabama Department of Revenue.

(2) INCOME TAX RETURN PREPARER.

(a) A person who prepares for compensation, or who employs one or more persons to prepare for compensation, any income tax return or claim for refund, required to be filed pursuant to this chapter. The preparation of a substantial portion of a return or claim for refund shall be treated as the preparation of that return or claim for refund.

(b) A person is not an income tax preparer if all he or she solely performs the following duties:

1. furnishes typing, reproducing, or other mechanical assistance;

2. prepares returns or claims for refunds for the employer by whom he or she is regularly and continuously employed, or for an affiliate of that employer, including a subchapter K entity for which he or she prepares a return;

3. prepares as a fiduciary, returns or claims for refunds for any person; or

4. prepares claims for refunds for a taxpayer in response to any notice of deficiency issued to that taxpayer or in response to any waiver of restriction after the commencement of an audit of that taxpayer or of another taxpayer if a determination in the audit of the other taxpayer directly or indirectly affects the tax liability of the taxpayer whose claims he or she is preparing.

(3) PERSON. An individual, firm, proprietorship, association, corporation, or another entity.

(4) PTIN. Preparer Tax Identification Number issued by the Internal Revenue Service and referenced in Internal Revenue Service Notice 2011-6.