Final answer:
A corporation has limited liability, unlimited life, but experiences double taxation, making option (a) the correct answer for its characteristics.
Step-by-step explanation:
A corporation is characterized by limited liability for its shareholders, meaning they are only liable for the company's debts to the extent of their investment. Moreover, a corporation has the advantage of unlimited life, meaning it continues to exist beyond the lives of its founders or individual managers. However, one of the drawbacks is double taxation, where the corporation's profits are taxed at the corporate level, and dividends distributed to shareholders are taxed again at the personal level. Therefore, the correct answer to the characteristics of a corporation is: a) limited liability for the owner, unlimited life of the entity, and double taxation.