URGENT - California state taxes for US expat renewing CA license

I live and work in the United Kingdom indefinitely. My CA driver's license is set to expire, so I thought I would renew it. However, I now understand that the tax implications might be bad.

A few weeks ago, I changed some bank addresses to CA (from Michigan), changed my official USPS mailing address to CA (from another location in CA), and filled out online the California Real-ID driver's license renewal form + re-registered to vote (in CA). I have not yet visited the DMV to finalise in person the driver's license and voting update that I did online, but was going to go tomorrow.

If I already filled out the forms for the license and voting (though I haven't completed the process by going in person) and have (perhaps erroneously) already changed my mailing and bank account addresses to CA, is it not too late to avoid CA trying to tax me on everything? And if it is too late, I wonder if I should just renew the drivers license so that I still have one. Thoughts? Is it futile to backtrack now?

Also, as a US citizen I am allowed to vote of course; but, to do that I have to register somewhere. How should that work if I need to avoid looking like a California resident so I don't get taxed by the state?

Thanks for your helpl!

Why did you not use your UK address for your bank statements?

I think you have to be a CA resident to be able to renew your license there in any case.

You can also vote using your UK address, just vote in the Federal elections only, to lessen state ties.

Once we moved from Texas to England we let our Texas licenses expire because we were not legally allowed to have them while not resident, and as residents we had each been called for jury duty 4 times in the 12 years we had lived there so didn't want to have that continue.

Our US bank account, US pension providers and brokerage all accept UK addresses so no reason to keep a US address.

When I voted in the last presidential election as an overseas voter I had to do so through Montgomery County, Texas which was the last place we lived and it was a very painful thing to do and I doubt if my vote was counted. It eventually took a phone call to get the documents and ballot paper sent out and the instructions stated that the ballot paper had to be inside an envelope with the address printed on the envelope. That envelope also had to be inside another envelope. I don't have a printer capable of doing this so I printed out a label with the address which I put on the envelopes. However, since Texas believes overseas voters are likely to not vote Republican I expect the fact that I did not comply EXACTLY with the instructions would mean my ballot paper was discarded.

If you have moved from California, your CA driver's license is no longer valid. You have to be a resident to have a valid License. (The exception is, of course, for military people for whom that restriction does not apply.) It would remain valid if you were only visiting in the UK, and kept a home in Cal.

For voting in federal elections, if California was the last place you lived in the States, that's the venue for you to vote. You can contact them and they'll send you a "federal only" ballot that does not cause you to be considered a resident. (If you were a resident, you'd vote in local and state elections as well.)

I keep a local address with my Bank there. It's not an issue. I also have my statements mailed to me here in the UK. The only reason I keep a local address with the bank is because if I list an overseas address as my only residence, it breaches the terms of service of the bank and my account would be closed. My pension can only be deposited into a USA bank account so I'd kind of be in a bind, as I can't open another US bank account to handle that from over here!

If you have moved from California, your CA driver's license is no longer valid. You have to be a resident to have a valid License. (The exception is, of course, for military people for whom that restriction does not apply.) It would remain valid if you were only visiting in the UK, and kept a home in Cal.

For voting in federal elections, if California was the last place you lived in the States, that's the venue for you to vote. You can contact them and they'll send you a "federal only" ballot that does not cause you to be considered a resident. (If you were a resident, you'd vote in local and state elections as well.)

I keep a local address with my Bank there. It's not an issue. I also have my statements mailed to me here in the UK. The only reason I keep a local address with the bank is because if I list an overseas address as my only residence, it breaches the terms of service of the bank and my account would be closed. My pension can only be deposited into a USA bank account so I'd kind of be in a bind, as I can't open another US bank account to handle that from over here!

We also have a US address linked to our US bank account for exactly the same reason. It is a California address even though we have never lived there. (Our daughter lives in LA).