diff --git a/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/FormatExtension.java b/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/FormatExtension.java
index 1b70815eea..3d0532eca7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/FormatExtension.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/FormatExtension.java
@@ -263,7 +263,9 @@ public void indentWithTabs() {
 	 *            Spotless will look for a line that starts with this to know what the "top" is.
 	 */
 	public void licenseHeader(String licenseHeader, String delimiter) {
-		customLazy(LicenseHeaderStep.NAME, () -> new LicenseHeaderStep(licenseHeader, delimiter)::format);
+		steps.add(FormatterStep.create(LicenseHeaderStep.NAME,
+				new LicenseHeaderStep(licenseHeader, delimiter),
+				LicenseHeaderStep::format));
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -273,7 +275,9 @@ public void licenseHeader(String licenseHeader, String delimiter) {
 	 *            Spotless will look for a line that starts with this to know what the "top" is.
 	 */
 	public void licenseHeaderFile(Object licenseHeaderFile, String delimiter) {
-		customLazy(LicenseHeaderStep.NAME, () -> new LicenseHeaderStep(getProject().file(licenseHeaderFile), getEncoding(), delimiter)::format);
+		steps.add(FormatterStep.createLazy(LicenseHeaderStep.NAME,
+				() -> new LicenseHeaderStep(getProject().file(licenseHeaderFile), getEncoding(), delimiter),
+				LicenseHeaderStep::format));
 	}
 
 	/** Sets up a format task according to the values in this extension. */
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/LicenseHeaderStep.java b/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/LicenseHeaderStep.java
index f186859249..a82fe511a8 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/LicenseHeaderStep.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/LicenseHeaderStep.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
@@ -26,7 +27,9 @@
 import org.gradle.api.GradleException;
 
 /** Prefixes a license header before the package statement. */
-public class LicenseHeaderStep {
+public class LicenseHeaderStep implements Serializable {
+	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
+
 	public static final String NAME = "LicenseHeader";
 
 	private final String license;