The dioxolene type ligands (Diox) derived from ortho-quinones are the most widely studied redox noninnocent ligands existing in the dianionic (Cat), anion radical (SQ) or neutral (Q) forms although a highly delocalized electronic structure is also possible. For [ReO(Diox) 2 PPh 3 ] − (2) and [ReCl 3 (Diox)PPh 3 ] (3) complexes, the Re V -Cat 2 and Re IV -SQ localized valence states were proposed on the basis of their XRD structures. To understand in detail the electronic structure of these complexes, we performed a series of the all-electron calculations at the DKH2-CASSCF/CASPT2 and DKH2-CASSCF/NEVPT2 levels taking into account scalar relativistic and spin-orbit effects. All calculations predicted that 2 has a singlet ground state with a predominant contribution of a single electronic configuration with doubly occupied molecular orbitals being pure o-quinone LUMOs of both Diox ligands that corresponds to the Re V -Cat 2 valence state. Complex 3 has a triplet ground state with four electronic configurations contributing mainly into its wavefunction and differing by the occupation of bonding and antibonding combinations of the o-quinone LUMO and rhenium d-AO with nearly equal contributions. This leads to the empirical "metrical oxidation state" of dioxolene ligand being −1 that is usually referred to the Re IV -SQ oxidation state. However, in fact, the negative charge on the Diox ligand is mainly provided by a pair of electrons on the bonding MO. The standard DFT calculations entirely fail to correctly predict the ground state multiplicity for 3. K E Y W O R D S DFT and CASSCF, dioxolene ligands, electronic structure, metrical oxidation state, rhenium complexes 1 | INTRODUCTIONIn the recent years, redox noninnocent ligands have attracted much attention in coordination and organometallic chemistry. [1,2] These are the ligands, whose oxidation state in the metal complex is ambiguous and, thus, the actual oxidation state of the metal center in such complexes may differ from the formal one. Redox noninnocent ligands can serve as reservoirs for electrons, which allows one to perform many-electron transformations of metals that are impossible under other conditions. Such complexes are very wide-spread and comprise a huge variety of metal centers: namely, from the first raw transition metals to actinides. [1][2][3][4] Among them, the transition metal complexes of redox noninnocent ligands are of particular interest because of their biological importance, [5] catalytic activity, [6] and unusual magnetic properties. [7] The number of redox noninnocent ligands is also very large and includes both the small molecular species (NO and O 2 ) and a number of chelating ligands, for example, pyridine-2,6-diimines, ortho-iminoquinones, α-diimines, amidophenolates, and so forth. [1,2] The most well-known redox