The following words, terms, and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

(1) COMMISSIONER. The Commissioner of Revenue of the State of Alabama.

(2) CONCENTRATION YARD. A place where logs, pulpwood, or inwoods pulpwood chips severed in Alabama are brought or received within the State of Alabama in a green or rough form or condition for resale to processors or manufacturers or for shipment out of state.

(3) DEPARTMENT. The Department of Revenue of the State of Alabama.

(4) FOREST PRODUCTS. Logs, pulpwood, poles, pilings, inwoods pulpwood chips, and stumpwood (tarwood).

(5) MANUFACTURER. As applied to logs suitable for manufacture into lumber, plywood, veneer, or other solid wood product, the person who operates the sawmill or plant in which the products are manufactured; as applied to pulpwood, the person who operates the paper or pulp mill, oriented strand board mill, pellet mill, or other plant in which the products are manufactured; as applied to poles and pilings, the person who purchases from the producer; as applied to stumpwood, the person who operates the plant or retort in which the product is utilized.

(6) PERSON. Any individual, firm, copartnership, association, corporation, receiver, trustee, or any other group or combination acting as a unit.

(7) PROCESSOR. A chip mill or other facility that receives forest products from a producer and further processes those forest products before delivery to a manufacturer.

(8) PRODUCER. Any person engaging or continuing to engage in this state in the business of severing timber or any other forest products from the soil, whether as owner, lessee, concessionaire, or contractor. The term shall also include any person who assembles or causes to be assembled any forest product for shipment out of the State of Alabama in an unmanufactured condition.

(9) SEVER. To fell, cut, or otherwise separate from the soil. For the purpose of this article, any person who is the owner or lessee of timber and is also the processor thereof or a manufacturer of products derived therefrom shall be deemed the producer engaged in severing such timber from the soil, notwithstanding the fact that the severance is made by an independent contractor or otherwise.

(10) TAXPAYER. Any person liable for taxes under this article.