We present extensive ab initio calculations on the low‐lying electronic states of trans‐1,3‐butadiene within the multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) framework by selecting the configurations with a perturbative criterion. The X 1Ag ground state and 1 3Bu, 1 3Ag, 2 1Ag, and 1 1Bu valence excited states have been calculated at a fixed geometry. The results obtained are in good agreement with previous experimental and calculated values, and could help to understand polyene spectroscopy, photochemistry, and photophysics. The advantages of a MRCI method where the most important contributions to the total MRCI wave function, perturbatively selected, are treated variationally, and the remaining terms are evaluated by means of a perturbational approach, are also discussed. Furthermore, a criterion in order to build a correlation‐consistent configuration interaction space is stated and, therefore, a reliable approximation to achieve accurate energy differences is obtained. Several monoelectronic molecular‐orbital basis functions are tried in order to select the most adequate to describe each state.