Reading about how to draw Lewis structures, all I know is that formal charge is the charge assigned to an atom in a molecule assuming that electrons are shared equally, regardless of differing electronegativity between atoms. It is just a concept used to arrive at the correct Lewis structure and does not represent actual charges on atoms. But what I don't understand is, why does using this concept lead us to the correct structure?
For example, right now I am looking at the example of the sulfate ion. I get to this point before formal charges need to be calculated:
All the atoms have an octet around them (though I'm aware sulfur can have more than eight electrons around it), but it is not the correct structure. Why does considering the formal charge give the right structure, if as stated above it doesn't reflect any actual charges? It also says on Wikipedia "Formal charge is a test to determine the efficiency of electron distribution of a molecule. This is significant when drawing structures.", but I am not sure what it means by this.
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