Mayor Bloomberg made more money this year in royalties from his past cameo appearances on the television show ‘Law & Order’ than he did from his $1-a-year salary.

That’s one of the few specifics one can glean from the heavily redacted tax returns that Mr. Bloomberg released today in a yearly ritual. Reporters were allowed two hours to review the mayor’s 2006 tax returns, but were barred from taking copies.

Many elected officials release their tax returns each year, but they are not required to do so. Mr. Bloomberg uses a system that offers a glimpse into his finances, but withholds both his exact income and tax burden.

Instead of dollar amounts, his longtime accountant, Martin Geller, substituted in ranges labeled by letters, starting at A for between $1,000 and $5,000 and ending at G for more than $500,000. G’s were listed next to most key categories like capital gains and tax-exempt interest.

Mr. Bloomberg, whose net worth has been estimated as high as $20 billion, accidentally overpaid his city, state, and federal taxes by at least $2 million. He overpaid his federal taxes by so much that he took a refund of more than $500,000, and he left more than $500,000 to apply to next year’s tax bill. For the first time last year, he also paid the Alternative Minimum Tax.

The returns show that the mayor paid his personal staff more than $500,000 in salaries. He took more than $500,000 out of the company he founded, Bloomberg L.P., of which he still owns nearly 68%. The forms suggest that the money was given to his newly created charity, the Bloomberg Family Foundation.

The returns listed scant specific information, such as a $3 payment Mr. Bloomberg made to presidential public financing system, which he did by checking off a box at the top of his 1040 tax form, and the ‘X’ he marked in the ‘single’ box under marital status. (The mayor is divorced and has a steady companion, Diana Taylor).

Mr. Bloomberg’s 2006 Conflicts of Interest Board disclosures, which his office also released yesterday, show his purchase of a home in Wellington, Florida last year. That multi-million home is used by his daughter, Georgina Bloomberg, to train horses in the winter months and is one of nine homes or buildings he owns. He also has a place in the ski resort of Vail, Colo., in Westchester, Bermuda, and London. In New York City, he owns an Upper East Side townhouse and a Manhattan apartment that his former girlfriend, Mary Jane Salk, reportedly lives in.

The documents show income from a wide range of investments, including a number of horse shows at which his daughter, Georgina, has won prize money, and interests and dividends from several investments including the Deutsche Bank, which owns the building on the World Trade Center site where a deadly fire killed two firefighters last weekend.

Mr. Bloomberg’s spokesman, Stuart Loeser, said the mayor releases only monetary ranges because exact dollar amounts would provide too much information to companies that compete with Bloomberg L.P.

During his bid for mayor in 2001, Mr. Bloomberg was criticized after saying the reason his rivals released their complete tax returns is “they don’t make anything.”