Formal Charge for Indivual Elements in Compound

[Allison_Eminhizer_3A]

So when the overall sum of formal charges is equal to zero but individual elements have say a -1 or a +1 or in some way balance eachother out, how do I determine which element should have what charge?

[mikezargari]

Normally the more electronegative atom would have the negative charge. This makes sense because they are holding the shared electron closer to their nucleus than the other atom is. Electron has a negative 1 charge which contributes to a negative formal charge for the more electronegative atom.

[Jeannie_Kim_1I]

If there's an extra electron, it's a -1 charge. For example, if there are 6 electrons around N, there would be a -1 because N only has 5 valence electrons. If an electron is missing, it's a +1 charge. Going back to the N example, if N is surrounded by 4 electrons, it would have a +1 charge because again, N has 5 valence electrons.

If there's say a +1, +1, and -2, the formal charge of that compound would be zero because those three charges would get cancelled out.