We investigated the recently found superconductor LaFeAsO1−xFx by x-ray absorption spectroscopy. From a comparison of the O K edge with LDA calculations we find good agreement and are able to explain the structure and changes in the spectra with electron doping. From experimental Fe L2,3-edge spectra and chargetransfer multiplet calculations we gain further information on important physical values such as the hopping parameters, the charge-transfer energy , and the Hubbard U. Furthermore we find the system to be very covalent with a large amount of ligand holes. A shift in the chemical potential is visible in the O K- and Fe L2,3-edge spectra which emphasizes the importance of band effects in these compounds. From the entirety of our results we conclude that LaFeAsO is a bandwidth-dominated material.