diff --git a/ui/ui.data.inc b/ui/ui.data.inc
index 0f1fde9..9f0c5f5 100644
--- a/ui/ui.data.inc
+++ b/ui/ui.data.inc
@@ -354,20 +354,20 @@ class RulesDataUIBoolean extends RulesDataUI implements RulesDataDirectInputForm
 class RulesDataUIDate extends RulesDataUIText {
 
   public static function inputForm($name, $info, $settings, RulesPlugin $element) {
-    $settings += array($name => isset($info['default value']) ? $info['default value'] : (empty($info['optional']) ? gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', time()) : NULL));
+    $settings += array($name => isset($info['default value']) ? $info['default value'] : (empty($info['optional']) ? format_date(time(), 'custom', 'Y-m-d H:i:s') : NULL));
 
     // Convert any configured timestamp into a readable format.
     if (is_numeric($settings[$name])) {
-      $settings[$name] = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', $settings[$name]);
+      $settings[$name] = format_date($settings[$name], 'custom', 'Y-m-d H:i:s');
     }
     $form = parent::inputForm($name, $info, $settings, $element);
     $form[$name]['#type'] = 'textfield';
     $form[$name]['#element_validate'][] = 'rules_ui_element_date_validate';
     // Note that the date input evaluator takes care for parsing dates using
     // strtotime() into a timestamp, which is the internal date format.
-    $form[$name]['#description'] = t('The date in GMT. You may enter a fixed time (like %format) or any other values in GMT known by the PHP !strtotime function (like "+1 day"). Relative dates like "+1 day" or "now" relate to the evaluation time.',
-      array('%format' => gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', time() + 86400),
-            '!strtotime' => l('strtotime()', 'http://php.net/strtotime')));
+    $form[$name]['#description'] = t('The date in system\'s default timezone. You may enter a fixed time (like %format) or any other values in GMT known by the PHP !strtotime function (like "+1 day"). Relative dates like "+1 day" or "now" relate to the evaluation time.',
+      array('%format' => format_date(time() + 86400, 'custom', 'Y-m-d H:i:s'),
+        '!strtotime' => l('strtotime()', 'http://php.net/strtotime')));
 
     //TODO: Leverage the jquery datepicker+timepicker once a module providing
     //the timpeicker is available.