Lithium complexes were prepared with phenylphosphinic and phenylphosphonic acids. The complexes were studied in the solid state using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectroscopy and in solution (methanol) using ¹H, ¹³C, and ³¹P Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) spectroscopy; the most preferred structures of the complexes were determined by density functional theory (DFT) computational method. Although methanol has a strong solvation effect on lithium ions and ligands, which causes dissociation of the complexes, significant changes of the NMR spectra of the complexes (relative to those of the free ligands) were observed. The new spectroscopic results indicate the presence of the phenylphosphinic acid tautomer (I: C₆H₅PH(˭O)OH) rather than that of phenyl-phosphorous acid (II: C₆H₅P(OH)₂) in deuterated methanol showing PH/PD exchange. On the other hand, tautomer I predominates in the complex with lithium without showing PH/PD exchange. The DFT calculations predict that tautomer I is the preferred structure in the case of free ligand and lithium complex. The absence of a PH/PD exchange in the complex is due to the formation of a chelating complex, rather than of a simple salt between lithium ion and the two oxygen atoms of I, which prevent tautomerization of I into II. DFT calculations support the formation of lithium chelating complexes. The lithium ion was found to affect the spectroscopic properties of phenylphosphinic acid more dramatically than those of phenylphosphonic acid.