PORTLAND — The UNUM Corp. said a $9.1 million tax settlement helped boost second-quarter earnings, which rose by 27.3 percent.

UNUM, a specialty insurance holding company, said Thursday that net income for the quarter rose from $39.5 million, or 95 cents per share, to $50.3 million, or $1.45 per share, when compared with the same period a year earlier.

For the six months that ended on June 30, UNUM said, earnings were up from $72.4 million to $93.8 million, compared with the same period from 1989.

“We continued to experience strong sales and earnings during the second quarter,” chairman James F. Orr III said in a statement. “The efforts of our employees resulted once again in solid financial success for the corporation.”

UNUM spokeswoman Carol Eleazer said the company’s $9.1 million tax dispute with the government involved money that was in a pension account. The government sought to tax the money as if it were in a life insurance account, at a higher rate, but UNUM prevailed in a legal battle that was waged in and out of U.S. District Court.

“We paid that amount and now we got that amount back,” Ms. Eleazer said.

UNUM, with assets in excess of $8 billion, provides group long-term disability insurance and employee benefits and individual disability insurance.