There's a quiet elegance in this question, and it deserves a straightforward answer: yes, the formula exists, and it's simpler than you might think. The user is asking for a way to return the next July 1 after any manually entered date, and the challenge isn't about complexity, it's about shifting the mental model from "add time to this date" to "find the next fixed point on the calendar." That distinction matters, because it's the difference between forcing a date to fit a pattern and letting the data tell you where it belongs.
The formula the user already has, `=IF(Q118="","",DATE(YEAR(Q118)+2,MONTH(Q118),DAY(Q118)))`, works fine when you want an anniversary. But it fails here because it preserves the month and day of the input, which is exactly what you don't want when your target is always July 1. The fix is to compare the input date against July 1 of the current year, then decide whether to use that year or the next. In plain terms: if the date is on or after July 1, return July 1 of next year; otherwise, return July 1 of this year. That's not a clever trick, it's just a logical fork, and it's the kind of thinking that turns a frustrating spreadsheet puzzle into a reusable pattern.
What makes this worth pausing on is what it reveals about working with dates in spreadsheets. Most people start with the assumption that formulas are about arithmetic, add a number, get a result. But dates are not just numbers; they're points on a timeline with context. The user's instinct to reach for `YEAR()`, `MONTH()`, and `DAY()` is correct, but the missing piece is the comparison logic that asks, "Where does this date sit relative to July 1?" Once you frame it that way, the solution becomes almost obvious, and more importantly, it becomes transferable. You can use the same pattern for any fixed recurring date, whether it's a fiscal year start, a renewal deadline, or a reporting cutoff.
The practical takeaway here is that you don't need a bespoke formula for every date problem. You need a clearer understanding of what the formula is actually being asked to do. The user is close, they've already built a formula that works for a different purpose, and they've correctly identified why it doesn't apply here. That's not a failure; that's the first step toward a better solution. So here's the concrete point: try this in B1, `=IF(A1="","",IF(A1>=DATE(YEAR(A1),7,1),DATE(YEAR(A1)+1,7,1),DATE(YEAR(A1),7,1)))`. It handles blank cells, it respects the logic of "next July 1," and it will return exactly what you need for any date you enter. That's the formula. Go use it.