Your date of residency in Texas starts when you established a permanent home in the Lone Star State. It is not the date you received a driver's license, registered to vote, etc. Commonly it is the date you signed a lease and/or started work. Those are signs you are doing more than "visiting".
Texas does not have an income tax so here is what California says:
You can have only one domicile at a time. Once you acquire a domicile, you retain that domicile until you acquire another. A change of domicile requires all of the following:
- Abandonment of your prior domicile.
- Physically moving to and residing in the new locality.
- Intent to remain in the new locality permanently or indefinitely as demonstrated by your actions.
2020 Guidelines for Determining Resident Status
Texas residency is established when you abandon your California residency and "permanently or indefinitely" put down roots in Texas. Since Texas does not have state income tax, it is to your advantage to use the earliest date possible to establish Texas residency.
