Opinion of Advocate General in the case DPAS.
(1) Article 135(1)(d) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC must be interpreted as meaning that a supply of services such as that performed by the taxable person in the dispute in the main proceedings, consisting in requesting from the relevant financial institutions, first, that a sum of money be transferred from the patient's bank account to that of the taxable person pursuant to a direct debit mandate and, second, that that sum be subsequently transferred from the latter account, after deduction of the remuneration due to the taxable person, to the dentist's and the patient's insurer's respective bank accounts, does not constitute a ‘transaction concerning payments or transfers' which is exempt under that provision since it does not, in itself, result in the legal and financial changes which characterise the transfer of a sum of money.
(2) Article 135(1)(d) of Directive 2006/112 must be interpreted as meaning that the fact that the supply at issue in the dispute in the main proceedings is formally provided by the taxable person to the person from whom the payment is due (the patient) and not to the creditor of that payment (the dentist), following an amendment to the contractual arrangements between those parties, is irrelevant for the purposes of applying the exemption provided for therein since the economic reality of that supply has remained unchanged.
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