The low-lying electronic states of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and its radical cation (TTF+) have been studied using tire multistate extension of a multiconfigurational second-order perturbation method (MS-CASPT2). The minimum-energy equilibrium geometries optimized at the CASSCF level have a boatlike conformation for the neutral molecule, with no significant barrier toward planarity. A more aromatic planar structure is, however, found for the ionic system. For TTF, the calculations of the vertical excitation energies comprise valence singlet and triplet states as well as the lowest members of the Rydberg series converging to the first ionization limit. Valence doublet states have been considered for TTF+. The results obtained lead to elucidate controversial assignments, yielding a full interpretation of the available experimental absorption spectra. In addition, vertical ionization energies of TTF have been computed, and the lowest-energy peaks of the gas-phase photoelectron spectra have been interpreted in the light of the present findings.