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I know that the accusative case is used in time expressions, for example:

Mein Urlaub beginnt nächsten Monat.

What I'm confused about is the following sentence:

Das Ablaufdatum für deinen Ausweis ist nächsten Monat - du solltest ihn ersetzen.

Can I use "nächster Monat" here? Shouldn't "sein" take the nominative case in both the subject & the copula?

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It's fine.

Das Ablaufdatum für deinen Ausweis ist nächsten Monat - du solltest ihn ersetzen.

Note that "nächsten Monat" simply specifies where the expiration date lies in time. "nächsten Monat" is a "Umstandsergänzung der Zeit" (adverbial phrase) here. This makes sense since the expiration date is some day within the next month.

It's same as in this sentence, for example:

Das Geburtstagsfest ist nächsten Monat.

You could say:

Das Ablaufdatum für deinen Ausweis ist der nächste Monat - du solltest ihn ersetzen.

but this implies that the ID really expires at the beginning of the month. I would almost expect the ID to say something like "Ablaufdatum: August 2022" in this case, which in my experience is uncommon.

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    This advice shows up a couple times on this site, but is not really helpful for non-native speakers: >>Consider that if you ask "Wann ist das Ablaufdatum?" the answer is "nächsten Monat"<<
    – infinitezero
    Jul 28, 2022 at 17:10
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    @infinitezero Yes, you're right here. OP wouldn't have asked if they knew the answer to that question. But theses questions can make sense in some instances, especially with cases.
    – idmean
    Jul 28, 2022 at 19:58
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It depends on what Ablaufdatum refers to. If it refers to any day within the next month (e.g., Ablaufdatum: 17.08.2022), then it should in fact be

Das Ablaufdatum für deinen Ausweis ist (im) nächsten Monat – du solltest ihn ersetzen.

If, however, the Ablaufdatum explicitly refers to the month itself (e.g., Ablaufdatum: August 2022), then we have the so-called Gleichsetzungsnominative (I don't know whether equative nominative is the term used in English):

Das Ablaufdatum für deinen Ausweis ist nächster Monat – du solltest ihn ersetzen.

Here, nächster is used without a definite article and is thus declined strongly. If a definite article is used, the weakly declined form nächste is chosen:

Das Ablaufdatum für deinen Ausweis ist der nächste Monat – du solltest ihn ersetzen.

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    I disagree about nächsten Monat being Dative - it only makes sense with im, and a preposition is almost never omitted in German. Compare the analogous Mein Urlaub beginnt nächste Woche - there is no way this can be Dative.
    – RHa
    Jul 28, 2022 at 19:13

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