I don't know why he asked it, but I know there was a time when income that was significantly higher in only one quarter meant that your tax rates were calculated differently. That may no longer be the case. It was a long time ago that I last went looking for the same answer. We wound up back pay from a union contract settlement that threw us into a different tax bracket, but wouldn't have if it were being calculated separately from the other quarters (which is what used to happen.)
