Are losses that I incurred as a shareholder/contractor of a now-worthless private company deductable

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I am a co-founder and 15% shareholder of a small private company. During the course of business I incurred approximately $30K in expenses that were supposed to be repaid (employee salaries, rent, equipment) but never were; I am owed $30K in compensation for work that I performed (though for most of the work I did for free), and I loaned the company $40K (under a verbal agreement) that was never repaid. The company never managed to turn any significant revenue. All of this occurred over a period of about 3 years. The company is now worthless. Is there any was to deduct any of those losses in my taxes going forward?

Are losses that I incurred as a shareholder/contractor of a now-worthless private company deductable?

Compensation, no. You never declared the wages as income, so you can't deduct their non-payment.

Expenses, probably, although exactly where you deduct it depends on the form of the business. You say "shareholder", which implies corporation, but it makes a difference whether it is a sub-chapter C, S, and LLC, or some other form I'm not aware of.

The loan, probably, provided that there's a stated interest rate in the verbal agreement. (I know you can't prove that...)

The loan would probably fall under the "bad debt" provision, making it a capital loss.

The expenses should have been deducted when incurred, although one could make a case for waiting until reimbursement became unlikely they probably fall under "miscellaneous itemized deductions".

Are losses that I incurred as a shareholder/contractor of a now-worthless private company deductable

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