The binding energies of some inner-shell electrons in atoms of complexes [MoCl2O2L2], [MoCl3OL2], [MoCl4L2], and [MoCl3L3] are reported [L = PPh3, PMePh2, PMe2Ph, PEtPh2, MeCN, EtCN, tetrahydrofuran (thf), pyridine (py), ½ 2,2′-bipyridine (bipy), ½ 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), or ½ 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe)]. Over this limited range of complexes, the metal binding energies are a function of the proportions of the anionic to neutral ligands, rather than of the metal oxidation state. The binding energies of the nitrogen atom in complexes of the donor py do not appear to correlate with simple inferences concerning atomic charges.