  We analyze distinct sources of spin-dependent energy level shifts and their
impact on the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of interacting quantum dots
coupled to collinearly polarized ferromagnetic leads. Level shifts due to
virtual charge fluctuations can be quantitatively evaluated within a
diagrammatic representation of our transport theory. The theory is valid for
multilevel quantum dot systems and we exemplarily apply it to carbon nanotube
quantum dots, where we show that the presence of many levels can qualitatively
influence the TMR effect.
