diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e81a4e379c838..69373cba747b2 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 # Ignore files generated by the Gradle build process.
 **/.gradle/**/*
 **/.gogradle/**/*
+**/gogradle.lock
 **/build/**/*
 **/vendor/**/*
 **/.gradletasknamecache
@@ -22,7 +23,9 @@ sdks/java/maven-archetypes/examples/src/main/resources/archetype-resources/src/
 sdks/java/maven-archetypes/examples-java8/src/main/resources/archetype-resources/src/
 
 # Ignore files generated by the Python build process.
-**/*.py[cod]
+**/*.pyc
+**/*.pyo
+**/*.pyd
 **/*.egg-info/
 **/.eggs/
 **/nose-*.egg/
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 1c5c04fcdb678..e924202df6dad 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -68,71 +68,8 @@ apply plugin: "base"
 // Apply one top level rat plugin to perform any required license enforcement analysis
 apply plugin: "org.nosphere.apache.rat"
 
-def findIgnoresForRat = {
+rat {
   def exclusions = [
-    // Ignore any offline repositories the user may have created.
-    "**/${offlineRepositoryRoot}/**/*",
-
-    // Exclude files generated by the Gradle build process
-    "**/.gradle/**/*",
-    "**/.gogradle/**/*",
-    "**/gogradle.lock",
-    "**/build/**/*",
-    "**/vendor/**/*",
-    "**/.gradletasknamecache",
-
-    // .gitignore: Ignore files generated by the Maven build process
-    "**/target/**/*",
-    "**/bin/**/*",
-    "**/dependency-reduced-pom.xml",
-
-    // .gitignore: Ignore files generated by the Python build process
-    "**/*.pyc",
-    "**/*.pyo",
-    "**/*.pyd",
-    "**/*.egg-info/**/*",
-    "**/.eggs/**/*",
-    "**/nose-*.egg/**/*",
-    "**/.tox/**/*",
-    "**/dist/**/*",
-    "**/distribute-*/**/*",
-    "**/env/**/*",
-    "sdks/python/**/*.c",
-    "sdks/python/**/*.so",
-    "sdks/python/**/*.egg",
-    "sdks/python/LICENSE",
-    "sdks/python/NOTICE",
-    "sdks/python/README.md",
-    "sdks/python/apache_beam/portability/api/*pb2*.*",
-    // .gitignore: Ignore IntelliJ files.
-    "**/.idea/**/*",
-    "**/*.iml",
-    "**/*.ipr",
-    "**/*.iws",
-    "**/out/**/*",
-
-    // .gitignore: Ignore Eclipse files.
-    "**/.classpath",
-    "**/.project",
-    "**/.factorypath",
-    "**/.checkstyle",
-    "**/.fbExcludeFilterFile",
-    "**/.apt_generated/**/*",
-    "**/.settings/**/*",
-
-    // .gitignore: Ignore Visual Studio Code files.
-    "**/.vscode/**/*",
-
-    // .gitignore: Hotspot VM leaves this log in a non-target directory when java crashes
-    "**/hs_err_pid*.log",
-
-    // .gitignore: Ignore files that end with "~", since they
-    //             are most likely auto-save files produced by a text editor.
-    "**/*~",
-
-    // .gitignore: Ignore MacOSX files.
-    "**/.DS_Store/**/*",
-
     // Ignore files we track but do not distribute
     ".github/**/*",
 
@@ -142,6 +79,7 @@ def findIgnoresForRat = {
     "**/test/**/.placeholder",
 
     // Default eclipse excludes neglect subprojects
+
     // Proto/grpc generated wrappers
     "**/apache_beam/portability/api/*_pb2*.py",
     "**/go/pkg/beam/**/*.pb.go",
@@ -153,23 +91,21 @@ def findIgnoresForRat = {
     "**/apache_beam/testing/data/vcf/*",
   ]
 
-  // merge with .gitignore as maven plugin does but gradle/ant one doesn't
-  def gitIgnore = new File(project.rootDir, '.gitignore')
+  // Add .gitignore excludes to the Apache Rat exclusion list. We re-create the behavior
+  // of the Apache Maven Rat plugin since the Apache Ant Rat plugin doesn't do this
+  // automatically.
+  def gitIgnore = project(':').file('.gitignore')
   if (gitIgnore.exists()) {
     def gitIgnoreExcludes = gitIgnore.readLines().findAll { !it.isEmpty() && !it.startsWith('#') }
-    logger.info('Adding {} gitignores exclusions to rat', gitIgnoreExcludes.size())
+    println "Adding ${gitIgnoreExcludes.size()} .gitignore exclusions to Apache Rat"
     exclusions.addAll(gitIgnoreExcludes)
   }
 
-  exclusions
-}
-
-rat {
   plainOutput = true
   xmlOutput = false
   htmlOutput = false
   failOnError = true
-  excludes = findIgnoresForRat()
+  excludes = exclusions
 }
 check.dependsOn rat